Background

Small animal models are critical to model the complex disease mechanisms affecting a functional joint leading to articular cartilage disorders. They are advantageous for several reasons and significantly contributed to the understanding of the mechanisms of cartilage diseases among which osteoarthritis.

Methods

Literature search in Pubmed.

Results and discussion

This narrative review summarizes the most relevant anatomical structural and functional characteristics of the knee (stifle) joints of the major small animal species, including mice, rats, guinea pigs, and rabbits compared with humans. Specific characteristics of each species, including kinematical gait parameters are provided and compared with the human situation. When placed in a proper context respecting their challenges and limitations, small animal models are important and appropriate models for articular cartilage disorders.

中文翻译：

---

关节软骨疾病平移模型中膝关节的比较解剖学和形态学。第二部分：小动物

背景

小动物模型对于模拟影响功能性关节导致关节软骨疾病的复杂疾病机制至关重要。由于多种原因，它们是有利的，并且显着有助于了解软骨疾病（其中包括骨关节炎）的机制。

方法

Pubmed 中的文献检索。

结果和讨论

这篇叙述性综述总结了主要小动物物种（包括小鼠、大鼠、豚鼠和兔）与人类相比，膝（膝）关节最相关的解剖结构和功能特征。提供了每个物种的具体特征，包括运动学步态参数，并与人类情况进行了比较。当放置在尊重其挑战和局限性的适当环境中时，小动物模型是关节软骨疾病的重要且合适的模型。