Abstract
A healthy natural synovial joint is very important for painless active movement of the natural musculoskeletal system. The right functioning of natural synovial joints ensures well lubricated contact surfaces with a very low friction coefficient and wear of cartilage tissue. The present paper deals with a new method for visualization of lubricating film with simultaneous measurements of the friction coefficient. This can contribute to better understanding of lubricating film formation in a natural synovial joint. A newly developed device, a reciprocating tribometer, is used to allow for simultaneous measurement of friction forces with contact visualization by fluorescence microscopy. The software allowing for snaps processing and subsequent evaluation of fluorescence records is developed. The evaluation software and the follow-up evaluation procedure are also described. The experiments with cartilage samples and model synovial fluid are carried out, and the new software is applied to provide their evaluation. The primary results explaining a connection between lubrication and friction are presented. The results show a more significant impact of albumin proteins on the lubrication process, whereas its clusters create a more stable lubrication layer. A decreasing trend of protein cluster count, which corresponds to a decrease in the thickness of the lubrication film, is found in all experiments. The results highlight a deeper connection between the cartilage friction and the lubrication film formation, which allows for better understanding of the cartilage lubrication mechanism.
Highlights
Painless movement, i.e., the proper function of our joints, is very important in the active life of a human
No no emission detected if cartilage the cartilage alone excited filters, as shown by Curves emission waswas detected if the alone was was excited usingusing both both filters, as shown by Curves
The present research showed a new approach to cartilage friction and lubrication evaluation
Summary
I.e., the proper function of our joints, is very important in the active life of a human. The extent of the disease depends on many factors and may result in incurable, irreversible damage of natural joints. In this case, a natural joint has to be replaced by an artificial one. When the artificial joint is worn, it has to be replaced by a new one. This process cannot be repeated many times because of the adverse impacts on human health (bone degradation due to a thorn replacement, mental intensity of the operation for the patient, etc.) [4,5,6]
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