Positive electric potentials detected at the cartilage/bath interface during compression and their importance in clinical cartilage diagnostics

Abstract — Editorial summary

Microelectrode measurements during cartilage compression revealed negative potentials within the tissue and positive potentials in the surrounding bath. Both indentation and unconfined compression experiments showed that these signals depended on loading speed and salt concentration. The authors proposed that fluid leaving the charged matrix displaces mobile ions near the cartilage–bath interface, generating the positive external signal. The findings challenge the assumption that bath potential is immediately zero outside cartilage and identify boundary effects that may influence diagnostic measurements and electromechanical models.

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