Academic Journal
From human joints to bioreactor setups: Quantifying mechanical stimuli in cartilage physiology and regeneration.
| Τίτλος: | From human joints to bioreactor setups: Quantifying mechanical stimuli in cartilage physiology and regeneration. |
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| Συγγραφείς: | Mukherjee S; Biomechanics Section, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Prometheus, Division of Skeletal Tissue Engineering, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: satanik.mukherjee@kuleuven.be., Wilson W; TU Eindhoven, Eindhoven, Netherlands., Geris L; Biomechanics Section, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Prometheus, Division of Skeletal Tissue Engineering, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; GIGA Institute, University of Liege, Liege, Belgium. |
| Πηγή: | Journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials [J Mech Behav Biomed Mater] 2026 Aug; Vol. 180, pp. 107476. Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 Jun 01. |
| Τύπος έκδοσης: | Journal Article |
| Γλώσσα: | English |
| Στοιχεία περιοδικού: | Publisher: Elsevier Country of Publication: Netherlands NLM ID: 101322406 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1878-0180 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 18780180 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Mech Behav Biomed Mater Subsets: MEDLINE |
| Imprint Name(s): | Original Publication: Amsterdam : Elsevier |
| Ιατρικοί όροι (MeSH): | Cartilage, Articular*/physiology , Cartilage, Articular*/cytology , Knee Joint*/physiology , Cartilage*/physiology , Bioreactors* , Regeneration* , Mechanical Phenomena*, Humans ; Finite Element Analysis ; Stress, Mechanical ; Tissue Engineering ; Biomechanical Phenomena |
| Περίληψη: | Bioreactors are widely used to apply mechanical stimuli to osteochondral (OC) explants and cartilage tissue-engineered (TE) constructs, yet their ability to replicate native joint mechanics is not well quantified. Using a finite element (FE) modeling approach, this study benchmarks common bioreactor loading protocols against the human knee during gait, enabling direct comparison to physiologically relevant mechanical parameters. A validated FE model of the human knee joint simulating the stance phase of gait was used to characterize key mechanical variables: maximum principal stress, maximum shear strain, pore pressure, and fluid velocity. These outputs were compared with FE analyses of representative bioreactor setups: dynamic unconfined compression (UC) (10%-30%) and combined compression (10%) with ball rotation (±25°), applied to both OC plugs and TE constructs, and hydrostatic pressure (0.5-50 MPa), applied only to TE constructs. In OC plugs, 10% UC generated maximum principal stresses (∼7.5 MPa) and pore pressures (∼4 MPa) closely matching native tissue (∼4.5 MPa and ∼5 MPa, respectively). In TE constructs, even at 30% UC, maximum principal stresses and pore pressures remained around 100 times lower than physiological values, while fluid velocities were 10 times higher. Hydrostatic loading of TE constructs at 5 MPa matched native pore pressures (∼5 MPa) but induced negligible strains. This study establishes a quantitative framework for evaluating how well bioreactor loading regimens replicate physiological joint mechanics. While limited to a single-subject dataset, this framework provides a robust in silico benchmarking methodology and identifies comparative indicators for evaluating bioreactor setups against specific mechanical variables. This work lays the foundation for a more standardized design of in vitro cartilage studies, supporting targeted translational strategies in cartilage repair and tissue engineering. (Copyright © 2026. Published by Elsevier Ltd.) |
| Competing Interests: | Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Wouter Wilson reports a relationship with Sioux technologies that includes: employment. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. |
| Contributed Indexing: | Keywords: Bioreactors; Cartilage tissue engineering; Finite element analyis; Knee joint mechanics; Osteochondral explants |
| Entry Date(s): | Date Created: 20260603 Date Completed: 20260613 Latest Revision: 20260613 |
| Update Code: | 20260615 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2026.107476 |
| PMID: | 42235116 |
| Βάση Δεδομένων: | MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1878-0180 |
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| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2026.107476 |