Relationships between structural stability of implanted site and biomechanical properties of tissue-engineered cartilage in the tibiofemoral joint defect

Biomechanical characteristics of articular cartilage in activities of daily life are essential factors to develop tissue-engineered cartilage as a substitution of defect lesion of articular cartilage. However, few studies have explicitly addressed biomechanical characteristics of tissue-engineered cartilage having inferior mechanical material properties. The purpose of this study was to estimate biomechanical characteristics of tissue-engineered cartilage induced in the tibiofemoral joint under compressive load condition using finite element analysis. The two-dimensional axisymmetric finite element model of human tibio-femoral joint was made and five set of partial mechanical properties of tissue-engineered cartilage were applied: Intact (Mo), up 50% (M1.5), down 50% (M0.5), down 90% (M0.1), and down 99.9% (Mx). The results of our study showed that over 50% down in material properties of tissue-engineered cartilage at knee joint were averagely recommended compared to the intact by considering calculated stresses at the contact area between femoral articular cartilage and meniscus. These results could be used as basic data to determine the appropriate mechanical property of the tissue-engineered cartilage for cartilage regeneration.