Articular calcified cartilage microarchitecture has a predictive role in abnormal osteochondral strain distributions in murine age-related osteoarthritis
- 1University of Brighton
Abstract
Even though osteoarthritis is considered a disease of the whole joint, integrated analysis of articular calcified cartilage (ACC) behaviour with adjacent tissues remains a persistent limitation. Herein, we performed synchrotron X-ray computed tomography in intact loaded joints and coupled anatomical analysis with digital volume correlation to examine whether microarchitectural ACC features serve as predictive mechano-biomarkers of osteoarthritis. We reveal that male osteoarthritis-prone STR/Ort mice have thicker yet more porous ACC that contains larger but less spherical chondrocyte lacunae than their healthy parental-control CBA mice. This was linked to asymmetrical distribution of tensile and compressive strains generated under physiological loads in the ACC and underlying subchondral bone in tibial epiphyses of STR/Ort mice. Together these data suggest that murine ACC microarchitecture has a mechano-predictive role in age-related osteoarthritis.
Related
- Recorded Adverse Events and Patient-Reported Outcomes After Intra-articular Extracellular-Vesicle Product Administration for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Retrospective Single-Practice Case Series
- Comparative Effectiveness of Low-Dose Intra-Articular Ozone Therapy for Pain and Functional Outcomes in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis: A Retrospective Cohort Study [Response to Letter].
- Is intra-articular injection of high-concentration ozone (O2–O3) more effective in treating knee osteoarthritis? : A multicenter cohort study
- Evaluation of the clinical efficacy of repeated intra-articular injections of stanozolol in canine patients with spontaneous osteoarthritis
- Depth-specific characterization of bone microarchitecture in the femoral head: implications for osteoarthritis and osteoporosis research
BibTeX
@misc{evans2026articular,
title = {{Articular calcified cartilage microarchitecture has a predictive role in abnormal osteochondral strain distributions in murine age-related osteoarthritis}},
author = {L. A. Evans and A. Sharma and J. Chen and L. E. Bourne and A. L. Parmenter and J. Brunet and K. Madi and S. Marussi and P. D. Lee and A. A. Pitsillides and K. A. Staines},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.18.752585},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752585v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Articular calcified cartilage microarchitecture has a predictive role in abnormal osteochondral strain distributions in murine age-related osteoarthritis
AU - L. A. Evans
AU - A. Sharma
AU - J. Chen
AU - L. E. Bourne
AU - A. L. Parmenter
AU - J. Brunet
AU - K. Madi
AU - S. Marussi
AU - P. D. Lee
AU - A. A. Pitsillides
AU - K. A. Staines
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/18
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.18.752585
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.18.752585v1
AB - Even though osteoarthritis is considered a disease of the whole joint, integrated analysis of articular calcified cartilage (ACC) behaviour with adjacent tissues remains a persistent limitation. Herein, we performed synchrotron X-ray computed tomography in intact loaded joints and coupled anatomical analysis with digital volume correlation to examine whether microarchitectural ACC features serve as predictive mechano-biomarkers of osteoarthritis. We reveal that male osteoarthritis-prone STR/Ort mice have thicker yet more porous ACC that contains larger but less spherical chondrocyte lacunae than their healthy parental-control CBA mice. This was linked to asymmetrical distribution of tensile and compressive strains generated under physiological loads in the ACC and underlying subchondral bone in tibial epiphyses of STR/Ort mice. Together these data suggest that murine ACC microarchitecture has a mechano-predictive role in age-related osteoarthritis.
ER -