• Seyed Ali Elahi, KU Leuven
• Ilse Jonkers
• Nele Famaey

Articular cartilage (AC) is an avascular smooth tissue that covers the ends of bones where they come together to form joints. The main functions of AC is to provide a frictionless smooth movement in the joints, absorb shocks and minimize peak loads in the underlying subchondral bone. There is strong evidence that chondrocytes, the only cell type within AC, react to mechanical signals and, as a consequence, adapt gene expression and protein production. Therefore, it is essential to study the local mechanics of AC to unravel the role of mechanical loading in cartilage homeostasis and disease. However, in vivo and in vitro studies face several limitations to evaluate the local mechanics of the tissue. These are related to limited access to samples and test data and the need for specific experimental facilities and high costs. To this end, in silico models provide a unique platform to overcome the limitations and incorporate insights from in vivo and in vitro experiments.
This minsymposium aims to present the latest contributions in computational modelling of AC, experimental methods towards model calibrations and clinical applications of in silico models. To this end, contributions considering the following topics are particularly welcome: mechanical, chemo-mechanical, mechano-biological, multi-scale, multi-physics and adaptive modelling of AC; clinical applications; constitutive modelling; mechanobiology and chondrocyte mechanics; applications of medical imaging and image analyses in mechanics of AC; mechanics of pathological processes; experimental methods and computational inverse analyses towards model calibration and definition.