Metabolic differences between knee and ankle

Abstract

Our studies of human articular cartilages began approximately 13 years ago when collaboration was established between the Department of Biochemistry of Rush Medical College and the Regional Organ Bank of Illinois. As of April 2001, this collaboration has resulted in the acquisition of cartilages from more than 1900 different donors, including about 250 donors from whom we received both knees and ankles and 1656 donors from whom we received only ankles. These are primarily adult donors with a mean age of 51.5 years, 90% men, 99% Caucasian; these gender and race are a reflection of the population of donors received by the Regional Organ Bank of Illinois. The knee (tibiofemoral) and ankle (talocrural) joints are graded on a five-point scale of Collins [1] as modified by Muehleman et al. [2] and reported by Koepp et al. [3]. Of the ankles that have been graded, 53% are macroscopically normal and have received a Collins grade of 0, while only the 483 knee joints (35%) received a Collins grade of 0, For the knee and ankle metabolic, biochemical and biomechanical comparisons, we have used joints from the same limb (matched pairs) from donors with grade 0 in the ankle and grades 0 and 1 in the knee.