Skip to main content
. 2011 Sep 15;2011:979032. doi: 10.1155/2011/979032

Table 3.

A comparison of animal and in vitro studies indicating the positive effect of physiological joint loading in articular cartilage.

Type of load Regimen Model system Major effect Reference
Running exercise 6 to 12 km/day Hamster Increased proteoglycan content [26]
Running exercise 15 km over 28 days Rat OA induced by ACLT Reduced apoptosis and chondral erosions [50]
Running exercise Varied age, 15 months exercise Rabbit Improved collagen organisation in young and reversed OA in older animals [54]
Increased loading Increased loading following 8 weeks of splinting Rabbit Increased maturation of tissue and increased collagen content [55]
Conditioning exercise Increased workload by 30% Foals Reduced cartilage degeneration index [56]
Running exercise 4 km/day, uphill, 15 weeks Beagle dogs Increased proteoglycan content and cartilage thickness [53]
Cyclic pressure-induced strain 0.3 Hz, 6 hours Human and monolayer Increased aggrecan gene expression [58]
Hydrostatic pressure 5 and 10 MPa at 1 Hz for durations of 4 h per day for 4 days Human monolayer Increased aggrecan and collagen type II gene expression [59]
Dynamic compression 3% at 0.01 to 1 Hz, 43 days Bovine and agarose Increased proteoglycan and collagen synthesis [63]
Dynamic compression 15%, 1 Hz, 48 hours Bovine and agarose Increased cell proliferation and proteoglycan synthesis and reduced nitrite release [60, 61]
Dynamic compression 10% at 1 Hz, 3  ×  1 hr on, 1 hr off, 5 days/week for 21 days Bovine and agarose Increased equilibrium aggregate modulus, sGAG and collagen synthesis [62]
Dynamic compression 1 MPa, repeated 2 and 4 sec, 1.5 hour Bovine and explants Increased proteoglycan synthesis [64]
Cyclic compression 1 MPa, 0.5 Hz, 3 days Bovine and explants Increased proteoglycan synthesis [70]