Mechanical Properties of Fresh, Frozen and Vitrified Articular Cartilage

Overview

Journal Ann Biomed Eng

Specialty Biomedical Engineering

Date 2023 May 2

PMID 37129781

Authors

Maha Ead

Kezhou Wu

Chester Jar

Kajsa Duke

Nadr Jomha

Lindsey Westover

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Osteochondral allograft transplantations are typically used to treat focal articular cartilage injuries where the damaged cartilage is replaced with fresh cadaveric donor grafts. Despite the notable success rate of this procedure, it is limited by fresh donor tissue availability which can only be stored for approximately 28 days after harvest. Vitrification, a form of cryopreservation, can extend the storage time of cartilage. Although it has shown to preserve chondrocyte viability, its effect on the mechanical properties of the tissue has not been thoroughly investigated. Therefore, in this study, the mechanical properties of fresh, frozen, and vitrified articular cartilage were evaluated through unconfined compression testing. Results showed that the peak modulus, equilibrium modulus, and relaxation time constants of the vitrified and control samples (tested one day after harvest) were similar and higher than the fresh (tested 21 days after harvest) and frozen samples. This demonstrated that vitrification does not adversely affect the mechanical properties of cartilage and can be used as an alternative to fresh allografts which are limited by storage time. The fresh samples also had inferior mechanical properties compared to the control samples suggesting that vitrified allografts could potentially improve clinical outcomes in addition to increasing donor tissue availability.

Citing Articles

Current State and Challenges of Tissue and Organ Cryopreservation in Biobanking.

Khaydukova I, Ivannikova V, Zhidkov D, Belikov N, Peshkova M, Timashev P Int J Mol Sci. 2024; 25(20).

PMID: 39456905 PMC: 11508709. DOI: 10.3390/ijms252011124.

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