Objective

Cartilage health is thought to be dependent on the relationship between mechanics, structure, and metabolism, rather than these individual components in isolation. Due to sex differences in cartilage health, there is need to determine if the relationships between these cartilage components separately for males and females. Therefore, we sought to determine the sex-specific associations between cartilage structure and metabolism at rest and their acute response following walking and drop-landing in healthy individuals.

Design

A cartilage ultrasound assessment and an ante-cubital blood draw were performed before and after walking and drop-landing conditions in 20 males and 20 females. Cartilage structure was assessed via medial and lateral femoral cartilage cross-sectional area. Cartilage metabolism was quantified with serum cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) concentration. Percent change scores from pre- to postloading were used to calculate acute alterations in cross-sectional area and COMP. Correlational analyses were used to assess the association between cartilage structure and metabolism measures separately for males and females.

Results

In females, greater resting COMP concentration was associated with less cartilage cross-sectional area in the medial(ρ = −0.50, P = 0.03) and lateral (ρ = −0.69, P = 0.001) femur. Resting cartilage measures were not associated among males. Following walking and drop-landing, percent change scores in cartilage structure and metabolism were not associated.

Conclusions

This study highlights that, in females, thinner anterior femoral cartilage is associated with greater resting serum COMP concentrations, a biomarker often linked to cartilage breakdown. Future studies into the relationships between various cartilage components should consider sex-specific analyses as these relationships are sex dependent.

中文翻译：

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软骨结构与静止和急性行走和降落后的代谢之间的性别特异性关联。

客观的

软骨健康被认为取决于力学、结构和新陈代谢之间的关系，而不是孤立地依赖这些单独的成分。由于软骨健康的性别差异，需要分别确定男性和女性的这些软骨成分之间的关​​系。因此，我们试图确定软骨结构和静息代谢之间的性别特异性关联，以及健康个体在行走和降落后的急性反应。

设计

在 20 名男性和 20 名女性的步行和落地条件之前和之后进行了软骨超声评估和肘前抽血。通过内侧和外侧股骨软骨横截面积评估软骨结构。用血清软骨寡聚基质蛋白 (COMP) 浓度对软骨代谢进行量化。从加载前到加载后的百分比变化分数用于计算横截面积和 COMP 的急性变化。相关分析用于分别评估男性和女性的软骨结构和代谢测量之间的关联。

结果

在女性中，较高的静息 COMP 浓度与内侧（ρ = -0.50， P = 0.03）和外侧（ρ = -0.69，P = 0.001）股骨的软骨横截面积减少相关。静息软骨测量与男性无关。在步行和降落后，软骨结构和新陈代谢的百分比变化分数不相关。

结论

该研究强调，在女性中，较薄的股骨前软骨与较高的静息血清 COMP 浓度相关，这是一种通常与软骨分解有关的生物标志物。未来对各种软骨成分之间关系的研究应考虑性别特异性分析，因为这些关系是性别依赖性的。