Novel Technique to Map the Biomechanical Properties of Entire Mice Articular Surfaces Using Indentation

S. Sim; J-F. Lavoie; A. Moreau; M. Garon; E. Quenneville; M. Buschmann
Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, 22(1), 541. World Congress on Osteoarthritis, April 2014, Paris, France.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joca.2014.02.576

2 citations · 0 en 2025–2026

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Purpose: An important measure of articular cartilage function in health and disease is its biomechanical properties. While much research has mouse models of osteoarthritis, the assessment of biomechanical properties in these small joints is quite challenging. We have previously developed novel and easily implemented indentation technique on sheep stifle joints and rat knee joints. The purpose of this study was to determine if this novel technique could be used to map the biomechanical properties of entire mice articular surfaces in indentation.

Methods: Wild-type mice of different age were used for this study. The left and right femoral condyles and tibial plateaus of an 8-week-old C57BL/6 male mouse were first biomechanically mapped in vitro. The mechanical tester used was a 3-axis Mach-1 v500css from Biomomentum Inc. A spherical indenter (Fig. 1) of 0.35 mm diameter (tolerance of ± 2.5 μm and sphericity of 0.625 μm) was use for the indentation measurement with a multiple-axis load cell of 7.0 kg range and 350 mg z-resolution. A 26G intradermal bevel needle was used for the thickness measurement. Following biomechanical testing, the articular surface was fixed in 4% PFA for histological assessment.

Results: The normal force versus time curve (Fig. 2) shows the typical behavior of articular cartilage in a stress relaxation configuration. High-resolution maps of the load at 10μm indentation depth were obtained for the tibial plateau and femoral condyles (Fig. 3). The average load at 10μm of indentation depth (mean ± SD) for the tibial plateau was 5.7 ± 2.7 g and 7.8 ± 4.1 g for the femoral condyles. It takes approximately 1 minute for each indentation measurement and 30 seconds for each thickness measurement (≈25 positions for each condyles and ≈ 40 positions for each tibial plateau).

Conclusions: The mapping of biomechanical properties of cartilage using indentation is applicable to articular cartilage as thin as mice.