Fundamental Study on Biorheological Properties of Cartilage Tissue due to Consolidation Effect

Abstract

The clinical application of autologous cartilage transplantation requires the intraoperative evaluation of mechanical properties around the harvested cartilage. Biorheological properties of cartilage have never clarified exhaustively, esptially in terms of pore fluid pressure generated by tissue consolidation. In this study, the biorheological mechanism of cartilage is investigated on the basis of simulated pore fluid pressure generated by consolidation effects during compression. As a result, the spatio-temporal distribution of pore fluid pressure was visualized tomographically. The generation of pore fluid pressure, which is dependent on the cartilage tissue structure, is thought to play a significant role to the biorheological properties.