Investigation of biomechanical response of Hoffa's fat pad and comparative characterization

The infrapatellar adipose body (Hoffa's fat pad, IFP) is situated between the patellar tendon, the femoral condyle and the tibial plateau. The IFP consists of lobules of white adipose tissue delimited by thin connective septa. The actual structural functionality of the IFP is debated and should pertain to a cushioning role in the knee joint, providing to distribute and to damp mechanical stresses during articular activity. The present study is aimed to analyze the correlation between histological configuration and mechanical properties of the IFP, compared to other adipose tissues, partially differentiated by composition and conformation. Histological and ultrastructural methods were exploited to analyze the microscopic anatomies of IFP, knee (KSF) and abdominal (ASF) subcutaneous fat tissues. Numerical micro-models of the different tissues were developed by using histo-morphometric data, as the size of adipose lobules, the thickness of the septa and their composition. Numerical analyses made it possible to evaluate the mechanical functionality of the different fat tissues considering the characteristic loading conditions, as compressive and shear actions. The results pointed out the actual mechanical relevance of IFP and KSF, while ASF exhibited different mechanical properties. Furthermore, the contribution of connective septa and adipose lobules to compressive and shear mechanical behavior was elucidated. This preliminary investigation represents the basis for biomechanical interpretation and the definition of more refined model to be developed on the acquisition of additional histological and morphometric data.