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Roles of the Fibrous Superficial Zone in the Mechanical Behavior of TMJ Condylar Cartilage

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Abstract

In temporomandibular joints (TMJs), the cartilage on the condylar head displays a unique ultrastructure with a dense layer of type I collagen in the superficial zone, different from hyaline cartilage in other joints. This study aims to elucidate the roles of this fibrous zone in the mechanical behaviors, particularly lubrication, of TMJ under physiological loading regimes. Mechanical tests on porcine condylar cartilage demonstrated that the superficial and middle-deep zones exhibit tension–compression nonlinearity. The tensile and compressive moduli of the superficial zone are 30.73 ± 12.97 and 0.028 ± 0.016 MPa, respectively, while those for the middle-deep zone are 2.43 ± 1.75 and 0.14 ± 0.09 MPa. A nonlinear finite element model of condylar cartilage was built to simulate sliding of a spherical probe over the articular surface. The presence of the superficial zone significantly promoted interstitial fluid pressurization (IFP) inside the loaded cartilage and reduced the friction force on the surface, compared to the case without the superficial zone. Finite element simulations showed that IFP depends on sliding speed but not normal load, which matches the experimental results. This study revealed the presence of the fibrous zone can significantly reduce the deformation of condylar cartilage under compression and the friction force on its surface during sliding.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Dawn Elliott for assistance in the measurement of tissue cross-sectional area and Dr. Gerard Ateshian for assistance with FEBio modeling.

Conflict of interest

All authors state that they have no conflicts of interest.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Delaware, 130 Academy Street, Newark, DE, 19716, USA

      Leonardo Ruggiero, Brandon K. Zimmerman, Miri Park, Liyun Wang, David L. Burris & X. Lucas Lu

    2. Department of Mechanics of Materials and Constructions, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

      Leonardo Ruggiero

    3. School of Biomedical Engineering, Science & Health Systems, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

      Lin Han

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    1. Leonardo Ruggiero
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    Correspondence to X. Lucas Lu.

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    Associate Editor Eric M. Darling oversaw the review of this article.

    Leonardo Ruggiero and Brandon K. Zimmerman have contributed equally to the work.

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    Ruggiero, L., Zimmerman, B.K., Park, M. et al. Roles of the Fibrous Superficial Zone in the Mechanical Behavior of TMJ Condylar Cartilage. Ann Biomed Eng 43, 2652–2662 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-015-1320-9

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-015-1320-9

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