Dr. Edward Bonnevie and Mary Clare McCorry have published an article in the journal of Biotribology.
Effective boundary lubrication is essential to the health of the cartilage within our bodies joints. In this paper, we explore the boundary lubricating properties of engineered meniscus tissue. Specifically, we hypothesized that incorporation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) enhance boundary lubrication through production of lubricin. Lubricin, which is a naturally occurring glycoprotein, is known to reduce boundary friction coefficients within the body. Our results indicated that incorporating MSCs into engineered menisci produced more localized lubricin on the tissue compared to meniscal fibrochondrocytes, and this trended significantly with decreased friction coefficients. This work highlights the importance of assaying frictional properties in engineered tissue, and that cell source is one parameter that can be tuned to facilitate effective lubrication.