Cartilage provides our joints with load support and lubrication for decades of continuous use with minimal friction or damage. These unusual bearing properties are in fact due to a biphasic tissue structure (containing both fluid and solid matrices) and the pressurization of interstitial fluid during dynamic deformations. Despite the fact that the pressurization of the interstitial fluid is transient and would be relaxed to baseline depending on the permeability of the tissue, this initial load bearing from the fluid can be as high as 90 percent, greatly reducing the stress acted on the solid matrix and thus the frictional force.
