Figure 1.
Ratio cö of internal to external solute concentration over time in cartilage disks for (A) 70 kDa dextran, (B) 10 kDa dextran, (C) 3 kDa dextran, (D) fluorescein (332 Da), and (E) transferrin (80 kDa) under dynamic loading (DL) and unloaded passive diffusion (PD) conditions (mean ± standard deviation). Results demonstrate that DL progressively pumps solutes into cartilage at concentrations that significantly exceed those achieved under PD; this pumping mechanism is most effective for larger molecular weight solutes, but insignificant for unconjugated fluorescein. *p<0.02: significant increase above respective PD time point. +p<0.001, †p<0.05: significant increase above initial DL time point.