Shunya Otani, Takashi Kanamoto, Shohei Oyama, Satoshi Yamakawa, Wen Shi, Ryo Miyazaki, Masaharu Aihara, Shiro Oka, Sanae Kuroda, Tsuyoshi Nakai, Keisuke Takenaka, Yuji Sato, Masahiro Tsukamoto, Akira Tsujii, Kosuke Ebina, Seiji Okada, and Ken Nakata
Abstract Meniscal degeneration is defined by semi-quantitative assessment of multiple histological findings and has been implicated in biomechanical dysfunction, yet little is known about its relationship with biological properties. This paper aimed to quantitatively evaluate degenerative findings in human meniscus to examine their relationship with gene expression and biomechanical properties, and to extract histological findings that reflect biological properties like gene expression and cytokine secretion. This study included lateral menisci of 29 patients who underwent total knee arthroplasty. The menisci were divided into six samples. For each sample, Pauli's histological evaluation and corresponding quantitative assessment (surface roughness, DNA content, collagen orientation, and GAG content) were performed, with surface roughness showing the highest correlation with the histological evaluation in a single correlation analysis (r = 0.66, p