Degeneration alters the biomechanical properties and structural composition of lateral human menisci.

OBJECTIVE: Because the literature relating to the influence of degeneration on the viscoelasticity and tissue composition of human lateral menisci remains contradictory or completely lacking, the aim of this study was to fill these gaps by comprehensively characterising the biomechanical properties of menisci with regard to the degree of degeneration. DESIGN: Meniscal tissue from 24 patients undergoing a total knee replacement was collected and the degeneration of each region classified according to Pauli et al. For biomechanical characterisation, compression and tensile tests were performed. Additionally, the water content was determined and infrared (IR) spectroscopy was applied to detect changes in the structural composition, particularly of the proteoglycan and collagen content. RESULTS: With an increasing degree of degeneration, a significant decrease of the equilibrium modulus was detected, while simultaneously the water content and the hydraulic permeability significantly increased. However, the tensile modulus displayed a tendency to decrease with increasing degeneration, which might be due to the significantly decreasing amount of collagen content identified by the IR measurements. CONCLUSION: The findings of the current study may contribute to the understanding of meniscus degeneration, showing that degenerative processes appear to mainly worsen viscoelastic properties of the inner circumference by disrupting the collagen integrity.

Friction properties of a new silk fibroin scaffold for meniscal replacement.

The menisci protect the articular cartilage by reducing contact pressure in the knee. To restore their function after injury, a new silk fibroin replacement scaffold was developed. To elucidate its tribological properties, friction of the implant was tested against cartilage and glass, where the latter is typically used in tribological cartilage studies. The silk scaffold exhibited a friction coefficient against cartilage of 0.056, which is higher than meniscus against cartilage but in range of the requirements for meniscal replacements. Further, meniscus friction against glass was lower than cartilage against glass, which correlated with the surface lubricin content. Concluding, the tribological properties of the new material suggest a possible long-term chondroprotective function. In contrast, glass always produced high, non-physiological friction coefficients.