LINKING THE MECHANICS OF HA TO KNEE CARTILAGE BIOLOGY (Orthopedics This Week)
A new, important study out of Dr. Lawrence Bonassar’s lab at Cornell University has tackled one of the central but more difficult questions surrounding viscosupplementation, namely the link between hyaluronic acid’s (HA) lubrication function and the complex biologic processes operating on the arthritic knee.
The study, which was presented at the annual meeting of the Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) between March 10-13, 2018, is titled “Articular Cartilage Lubrication by HYADD® 4 Reduces Tissue Strains, Chondrocyte Death and Apoptosis.”
As the investigators stated in the introduction to their study: “It remains unclear how the lubricating properties of HA mediate biologic changes in cartilage tissue. Recently, our lab developed methods to measure cellular changes in response to cyclic sliding motion. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between the lubricating properties of HYADD®4, an HA viscosupplement and chondrocyte health after sliding articular cartilage in HYADD®4.”
To understand the importance of the work coming out of Bonassar’s lab, it’s helpful to understand the origina...
