Local shear strain, Exz, versus normalized tissue depth for normal (NL: ●, ○) and degenerate (DGN: ■, □) cartilage after 5 (A–D) and 60 (E–H) minutes of stress relaxation and (A,E) 0, (B,F) 0.2, (C,G) 0.4, and (D,H) 0.6 mm of applied lateral displacement (Δx). Samples were tested with phoshate buffered saline (PBS: ○, □) and synovial fluid (SF: ●, ■).