Cartilage Thickness

Changes In cartilage thickness with time, when worn under... 

Commonly used cartilage defect models include partial-thickness (chondral) and fuU-thickness (osteochondral) defects in rabbits and dogs [52]. The rabbit distal femoral defect model is a well-established, reproducible model. Creating a partial-thickness defect can be challenging because the cartilage thickness in the rabbit femoral condyles is only 0.25 to 0.75 mm (compared to 2.2 to 2.4 mm in humans) [53]. The dog distal femur defect model, by contrast, offers a larger defect size with which to work. Besides species, the age of the animal is also an important consideration since the potential for cartilage repair as well as the response to various treatments varies with different animals [53]. Skeletal maturity of the commonly used New Zealand white rabbits typically occurs between 4 and 6 months. 

Bryant, S.J. and Anseth, K.A., The effects of scaffold thickness on tissue engineered cartilage in photocrosslinked poly(ethylene oxide) hydrogels. Biomaterials, 22, 619-626, 2001. 

Fetlocks of freshly slaughtered steers (age 18 to 20 months) are skinned and the metacarpo-phalangeal joint opened under semi-sterile conditions. With a sterile punch (as used for obtaining skin biopsies) full thickness disks of cartilage are obtained from all accessible cartilaginous areas and their wet weight is assessed. In each well, 1 ml of medium is added, consisting of Ham s F12 supplemented with 10 % FCS... 

A step towards organ culture represents the culture of full thickness cartilage with subchondral bone, cultured for 24 h on moist lens tissue (Chayen et al. 1994). 

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