Figure 7. Relation between extrafibrillar biopolymer concentration and increase in synovial hydraulic conductance predicted by trans-synovial flow model (continuous curve), compared with experimental results (data points).

Conductances were normalized by dividing by control conductance and are plotted on a logarithmic scale since they cover an order of magnitude. The observed increase in conductance after Streptomyces hyaluronidase treatment (data point on right, means ± s.e.m.) is plotted against control biopolymer concentration minus the concentration of hyaluronan in the synovial extrafibrillar space. The observed increase in conductance after testicular hyaluronidase treatment (left point) is plotted against control concentration minus hyaluronan and chondroitin sulphate concentrations. Reading from the model curve, an effective depletion of ≈7 mg ml⁻¹ uniformly distributed extrafibrillar biopolymer is needed to generate a 5-fold increase in conductance.