The Study Of The Relevance Between Degeneration Of The Knee Articular Cartilage In Human With Osteoarthritis And Subchondral Bone Morphologic Changes

Objective: Knee osteoarthritis is one of the most common joint disease, is the leading cause of joint dysfunction. OA has traditionally been seen as a primary articular cartilage disorder, but with the in-depth study of the structure and function of cartilage, All joint structure, including subchondral bone, trabecular bone, joint capsule will be affected. Since 1986, Radin first proposed subchondral bone may play a role in the start and progression of cartilage degeneration,the current study of subchondral bone has become one of the focus. The study on role of subchondral bone in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis(OA) and its correlation with the change of articular cartilage.Methods:From November 2012 to November 2013,30 specimens of tibial plateau were obtained from OA patients after total knee arthroplasty. Micro-CT scanning was done to obtain serial images of the specimens. Based on the two-dimensional images,special three-dimensional figures of the trabecular structure were reconstructed by computer with the voxel size being 18μm×18μm×18μm. By comparing and analyzing the difference of subchondral bone between the medial and lateral plateau, the study will provide experimental basis for the pathogenesis of knee osteoarthritis.Results: The three-dimensional parameters of the advanced patients with knee osteoarthritis cartilage and the subchondral bone trabecula collapsed regions were significantly different from those of the norma1 region. The medial plateau BV/TV,Tb.Th,Tb.N was significantly higher than that of lateral and the Tb.Sp was significantly lower than that of lateral(P<0.05).Conclusions: Cartilage degeneration was more severe in the medial plateau than that of the lateral plateau. The BV/TV, Tb.Th and Tb.N of the medial plateau were significantly higher than those of the lateral plateau. The Tb.Sp of the medial plateau were significantly lower than those of the lateral plateau. The severity of articular cartilage degeneration was significantly correlated with BV/TV,Tb.N,Tb.Th and inversely correlated with Tb.Sp.