Evaluation of cartilage repair tissue after biomaterial implantation in rat patella by using T2 mapping.

To evaluate the ability of MR T2 mapping (8.5 T) to characterize ex vivo longitudinally, morphologically and quantitatively, alginate-based tissue engineering in a rat model of patellar cartilage chondral focal defect. Calibrated rat patellar cartilage defects (1.

Effect of proteoglycan depletion on T2 mapping in rat patellar cartilage.

Purpose: To evaluate experimentally the sensitivity of T2 mapping with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging at 8.5 T in depicting variations in proteoglycan content and concurrent extracellular matrix of rat patellar cartilage.

Materials And Methods: The study was performed in 36 immature (age, 5 weeks) and 36 mature (age, 10 weeks) Wistar rats.

T2 mapping: an efficient MR quantitative technique to evaluate spontaneous cartilage repair in rat patella.

Objective: To evaluate the ability of T2 mapping on an 8.5 T imager to characterize morphologically and quantitatively spontaneous repair of rat patellar cartilage following full thickness defect.

Methods: Patellar cartilage defects were created in 24 rats knees on D0.

The biochemical content of articular cartilage: an original MRI approach.

The MR aspect of articular cartilage, that reflects the interactions between protons and macromolecular constituents, is affected by the intrinsic tissue structure (water content, the content of matrix constituents, collagen network organization), imager characteristics, and acquisition parameters. On the T1-weighted sequences, the bovine articular cartilage appears as an homogeneous tissue in high signal intensity, whatever the age of animals considered, whereas on the T2-weighted sequences, the articular bovine cartilage presents variations of its imaging pattern (laminar appearance) well correlated to the variations of its histological and biochemical structure. The T2 relaxation time measurement (T2 mapping), which reflects quantitatively the signal intensity variations observed on T2 weighted sequences, is a way to evaluate more precisely the modifications of cartilage structure during the aging and maturation processes (rat's study).

T2 mapping of rat patellar cartilage.

Purpose: To investigate the usefulness of magnetic resonance (MR) T2 mapping in characterizing the evolution of cartilage matrix content and thickness during the maturation and aging process.

Materials And Methods: Patellae from four groups of rats aged 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 4 months, and more than 6 months ("old rats") were studied ex vivo with an 8.5-T microimager.