Tensile and compressive properties of the medial rabbit meniscus

Quantification of the material properties of the meniscus is of paramount importance, creating a 'gold-standard' reference for future tissue engineering research. The purpose of this study was to determine the compressive and circumferential tensile properties in the rabbit meniscus. Creep and recovery indentation experiments were performed on the meniscus using a creep indentation apparatus and analysed via a finite element optimization method to determine the compressive material properties at six topographical locations. Tensile properties of samples taken circumferentially from the rabbit meniscus were also examined. Results show that the femoral side of the anterior portion exhibits the highest aggregate modulus (510 +/- 100 kPa) and shear modulus (240 +/- 40 kPa), while the lowest aggregate modulus (120 +/- 30 kPa) and shear modulus (60 +/- 20 kPa) were found on the femoral side of the posterior location. Values of 156.6 +/- 48.9 MPa for Young's modulus and of 21.6 +/- 7.0 MPa for the ultimate tensile strength of were found from the tensile samples, which are similar to the values found in other animal models. These baseline values of material properties will be of help in future tissue engineering efforts.