Partners from the MIRACLE project have recently published a paper in the journal CARTILAGE. The study presents results from a validation study, showing that mid-infrared fiber-optic spectroscopy can detect mechanically and enzymatically induced damage in bovine cartilage with great accuracy.
The study titled “Infrared Fiber-Optic Spectroscopy Detects Bovine Articular Cartilage Degeneration” includes work from three MIRACLE project partners: University of Oulu, University of Eastern Finland, and Norwegian University of Life Sciences. In the study, bovine cartilage samples were degenerated with 3 different enzymatic treatments and 2 different mechanical treatments, and afterwards compared to untreated control samples. The results from PLS-DA classification showed that mid-infrared fiber-optic spectroscopy can detect different kinds of controlled damage, which simulate the degeneration occurring during the progression of osteoarthritis.
The study is the first of the validation studies to be published under the MIRACLE project and guides the way for the development of the MIRACLE device. Next step for the validation is showing that the method can detect real osteoarthritic degeneration in human cartilage. The next study is currently under preparation and will be published this year.
