[Stress-strain properties of the tissue-engineered cartilage]

This study was conducted to investigate the biomechanical properties of tissue-engineering cartilage. The compressive modulus of the collagen-chondrocyte constructs that had been cultured in vivo for 16 weeks and the centrifuge-tube-cultured cartilage in vitro were measured with 5% strain. The results showed that the compressive moduli of the centrifuge-tube-cultured cartilage at the 4th, 8th, 12th and 16th weeks were 0.352 MPa, 0.653 MPa, 0.233 MPa and 0.262 MPa respectively. The top modulus among them was at the 8th week. The compressive modulus of the neocartilage engineered by the collagen-chondrocyte constructs in vivo for 16 weeks was 10.668 MPa and reached the same order of magnitude as human fetal articular cartilage, but it is still under that of the human fetal articular cartilage actually. The culture methods should be developed further though the dynamic alteration of the compressive modulus of the centrifuge-tube-cultured neocartilage is in accord with that of the GAG/DNA content ratio of the neocartilage.