Response to Comment by Charles W. McCutchen

Abstract

We thank Dr. McCutchen for his comment. We are keenly aware of his hypotheses for cartilage lubrication 12 and agree with one of the fundamental premises he first proposed, namely that hydrostatic pressurization of the interstitial fluid of cartilage supports most of the contact load transmitted across articular surfaces, thereby reducing the interfacial frictional force exerted on the solid matrix of the opposing surfaces. We have previously formulated a cartilage friction model 34, within the frameworks of the biphasic 5 and triphasic 6 theories of cartilage, to quantify this mechanism, and we have recently found excellent agreement between the model predictions and experimental data 7, thus supporting Dr. McCutchen’s original hypothesis.