Abstract
During evolution, animals have returned from land to water, adapting with morpho-logical modifications to life in an aquatic environment. We compared the osteochondral units of the humeral head of marine and terrestrial mammals across species spanning a wide range of body weights, focusing on microstructural organization and biomechanical performance. Aquatic mammals feature cartilage with essentially random collagen fiber configuration, lacking the depth-dependent, arcade-like organization characteristic of terrestrial mammalian species. They have a less stiff articular cartilage at equilibrium with a significantly lower peak modulus, and at the osteochondral interface do not have a calcified cartilage layer, displaying only a thin, highly porous subchondral bone plate. This totally different constitution of the osteochondral unit in aquatic mammals reflects that accommodation of loading is the primordial function of the osteochondral unit. Recognizing the crucial importance of the microarchitecture-function relationship is pivotal for understanding articular biology and, hence, for the development of durable functional regenerative approaches for treatment of joint damage, which are thus far lacking.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e80936 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | eLife |
| Volume | 12 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 27 Nov 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2023, eLife Sciences Publications Ltd. All rights reserved.
Funding
The authors acknowledge the staff of the division of Pathology, from the Department of Biomolecular Health Sciences, of the faculty of Veterinary Medicine, in particular R Wagensveld-van den Dikkenberg, for their valuable help with the sample collection. The authors would also like to thank P Kamminga and the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands, for access to their collection of mammalian skeletons. Post-mortem investigations of cetaceans in the Netherlands are commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Nature, Agriculture and Food Quality (project grant numbers: 140000353; WOT04-009-045, HD3611/BO11018.02 065). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007– 2013) under grant agreement 309962 (HydroZONES), and the Dutch Arthritis Association (ReumaNL, LLP-12 and LLP-22). The authors acknowledge the staff of the division of Pathology, from the Department of Biomo-lecular Health Sciences, of the faculty of Veterinary Medicine, in particular R Wagensveld-van den Dikkenberg, for their valuable help with the sample collection. The authors would also like to thank P Kamminga and the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands, for access to their collection of mammalian skeletons. Post-mortem investigations of cetaceans in the Netherlands are commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Nature, Agriculture and Food Quality (project grant numbers: 140000353; WOT04-009-045, HD3611/BO11018.02 065). The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007– 2013) under grant agreement 309962 (HydroZONES), and the Dutch Arthritis Association (ReumaNL, LLP-12 and LLP-22).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Utrecht University | |
| Ministerie van Economische Zaken en Klimaat | WOT04-009-045, 140000353, HD3611/BO11018.02 065 |
| Naturalis Biodiversity Center | |
| Seventh Framework Programme | 309962 |
