Computational Simulation of Articular Cartilage Wear in the Patellofemoral Joint During In Vitro Testing

The mechanism by which altered knee joint motions and loads (e.g., following anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury) contribute to the development of knee osteoarthritis (OA) is not well understood. One mechanobiological hypothesis is that articular cartilage degradation is initiated when altered knee kinematics increase loading on certain regions of the articular surfaces and decrease loading on other regions [1,2]. If homeostatic loading conditions vary from region to region, then load changes induced by altered kinematics could initiate cartilage degradation in a site-specific manner. This hypothesis is attractive from a computational simulation perspective since it is based on mechanical factors that lend themselves well to physical modeling. If computational simulations could reproduce the knee OA development process, then they potentially could be used to facilitate the design of new or improved treatments for the disease.