Abstract
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 29.333335876464844px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Early therapeutic intervention to mitigate articular cartilage (AC) degeneration following joint injury could be a potential strategy to prevent post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA). A custom-made joint loading device along with ex-vivo model of knee joint was created to examine the effects of dynamic joint loading on the expression of Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α), two inflammatory cytokines which are upregulated during the early stages of PTOA following AC injury. The objective of this dissertation work was to demonstrate the potential benefits of dynamic joint loading to AC post-acute injuries such as those commonly experienced in high impact activities. Knee joint injury prior to using the joint loading device was induced by a custom-made impact device. It was demonstrated ex-vivo that an impact of the knee joint upregulated gene expression of IL-1β and TNF-α in articular cartilage while dynamic joint loading suppressed these changes. IL-1β and TNF-α are principal mediators of the inflammatory response and their increased activities are associated with the severity of cartilage damage after acute joint injury. The findings suggest that a dynamic joint loading device could be an easy-to-administer effective and potentially early intervention strategy to mitigate rapidly occurring detrimental events from progressing into irreversible cartilage damage. Recommendations for further studies are included.<o:p></o:p></span></p>