Our findings demonstrate that the surface friction of tissue-engineered cartilage may act as a potent regulator of cellular homeostasis by governing the magnitude of shear deformation during mechanical loading, suggesting a similar relationship may also exist for native articular cartilage.
Although in our study it is not clear which subtype of IL-1 is involved in AF cell mechanotransduction, information from other studies of connective tissue mechanical loading suggests IL-1 β as the primary candidate [ 35, 40].
Furthermore, we highlighted miRNAs associated with both OC status and mechanical loading, suggesting that miRNAs may be involved in OC physiopathology as well as in the cellular response to biomechanical stress.
These results can be interpreted in two ways: either as a lack of proximal mechanical loading as suggested for cortical bone or as a stress-induced cancellous bone failure (Taylor et al. 1995a, b).
Our experience of materials' physics, gathered by investigating response to mechanical loads, has suggested a series of descriptive constructs within which we build our picture of behaviour.
Whereas mechanical loading has been suggested as an intermediary between obesity and OA in the knee and hips [ 52], it may not always be a contributing factor, especially in non-weight-bearing joints such as the hand [ 7, 8].
Mechanical loading has been suggested as an important way of regulating the chondrocytic activities (Broom et al. 1980, Palmoski and Brandt 1984, Schneiderman et al. 1986, Gray et al. 1988, Sah et al. 1989, Korver et al. 1992, Parkkinen et al. 1992, Guilak et al. 1994, Buschmann, et al. 1995, Lee and Bader 1997, Ragan et al. 1999, Elder et al. 2001).
However, the tissues of the NP are subjected to continuous fluid flow because of mechanical loading and osmotic swelling, suggesting that the drug would rapidly diffuse away from the delivery site.
Of all the experimental groups, the ECM area stained with toluidine blue (TB) was broadest in cells with the mechanical loading for 60 min/day, suggesting the most active proteoglycan production.
These findings suggest that mechanical loading can induce changes in the stiffness and failure properties of the collagen fibril network through passive chemomechanical processes in addition to active cellular processes.
