Self-diffusion monitors degraded cartilage.

This article demonstrates that both the bulk water self-diffusion coefficient (D) and the spatially resolved variation in D for lesion canine cartilage due to osteoarthritis is increased by about 25% over that of surrounding cartilage. This increase in D can be mimicked by enzymatic degradation of cartilage with trypsin, hyaluronidase, and collagenase, or by mechanical means. However, it is established here using excised disks of living cartilage whose proteoglycan and collagen contents were manipulated by biochemical intervention in tissue culture that the diffusion measurement is not sensitive to the proteoglycan content of cartilage. Instead, self-diffusion appears to monitor mesoscopic (nonspecific) tissue damage. These results show that D, measured in a spatially resolved manner by pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, can localize regions of cartilage degradation.