Age-Related Changes in Viscoelasticity of Rabbit Knee Articular Chondrocytes

Articular chondrocytes undergoes age-related changes that increase the risk of joint degeneration. The goal of this study was to characterize the changes of viscoelastic properties of rabbit chondrocytes in nature degeneration of knee articular cartilage. The micropipette aspiration combined with a standard linear viscoelastic solid model was used to quantify changes in viscoelastic properties of chondrocytes isolated from different age groups. Results have shown that the viscoelastic properties of chondrocytes in old group exhibited a significantly lower instantaneous modulus, equilibrium modulus, and apparent viscosity compared with young group (p<0.005) and adult group (p<0.005). But no differences were found between young group and adult group (p>0.1). These findings may be relevant for chondrocyte-based cartilage tissue engineering.