Mechanobiological model for simulation of injured cartilage degradation via pro-inflammatory cytokines and mechanical stimulus
Fig 7
Temporal estimations of cartilage degradation.
Average and maximum fixed charge density (FCD) losses over time predicted by A) biochemical, B) biomechanical, and C) combined biochemical and biomechanical model. The dashed line in biomechanical model includes the base degeneration rate parameter, which was chosen according to the experimental FCD loss in freely-swollen cartilage disks (see S1 Supplementary Material, Subsection S1.8). The blue and black errorbars (with 95% confidence intervals) at days 7 and 12 represent the experimental average FCD loss near lesions after dynamic loading and in freely-swollen samples, respectively. The FCD concentration was not allowed to decrease below 10% of the initial minimum FCD concentration in the model due to computational stability.