Relationship between dynamic stress field and ECM production in regenerated cartilage tissue

Mechanical stresses exerted in articular cartilage during daily joint movements can stimulate the metabolism of chondrocytes in cartilage. Upregulative effects of mechanical stimuli on extracellular matrix (ECM) biosynthesis of chondrocytes have been utilized in the cartilage tissue for regenerative tissue engineering. However, dynamic functionalities of these regenerated cartilages were lacked compared with the natural arthrodial cartilage. Natural synovial joint surfaces are contacting and sliding each other. As a result, the loading condition applied to the cartilage tissue is not simple. Under the contact between surfaces, non-uniform stress distribution is exerted in the cartilage tissue. The shear stress at contact area is highly depended on the distance from the surface. Moreover, the surface region is exposed to larger shear stress compared with the deep region. We hypothesized that high stress in surface region may stimulate chondrocytes selectively and establish anisotropic structure in elaborated tissue. In this study, the relative motion between cartilage surfaces in a synovial joint is simulated by the rolling-sliding motion of the roller on the cultured chondrocyte-agarose construct. Then, we investigated effects on the ECM distribution and morphology of regenerated cartilage tissue.