Independent and combined effects of obesity and traumatic joint injury to the structure and composition of rat knee cartilage.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a multifactorial joint disease characterized by articular cartilage degradation. Risk factors for OA include joint trauma, obesity, and inflammation, each of which can affect joint health independently, but their interaction and the associated consequences of such interaction were largely unexplored. Here, we studied compositional and structural alterations in knee joint cartilages of Sprague-Dawley rats exposed to two OA risk factors: joint injury and diet-induced obesity.

Correction: A musculoskeletal finite element model of rat knee joint for evaluating cartilage biomechanics during gait.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.

A musculoskeletal finite element model of rat knee joint for evaluating cartilage biomechanics during gait.

Abnormal loading of the knee due to injuries or obesity is thought to contribute to the development of osteoarthritis (OA). Small animal models have been used for studying OA progression mechanisms. However, numerical models to study cartilage responses under dynamic loading in preclinical animal models have not been developed.

Effect of cells on spatial quantification of proteoglycans in articular cartilage of small animals.

Objective: Histochemical characterization of proteoglycan content in articular cartilage is important for the understanding of osteoarthritis pathogenesis. However, cartilage cells may interfere with the measurement of matrix proteoglycan content in small animal models (e.g.