The amphoteric effect on friction between the bovine cartilage/cartilage surfaces under slightly sheared hydration lubrication mode

• Phospholipidic multi-bilayers protect the surfaces of the natural joints against wear.
• Friction between cartilage pair contact is highly sensitive to the pH of H2O solution.
• The low friction is due to lamellar slippage of bilayers and a short-range repulsion.

The amphoteric effect on the friction between the bovine cartilage/cartilage contacts has been found to be highly sensitive to the pH of an aqueous solution. The cartilage surface was characterized using a combination of the pH, wettability, as well as the interfacial energy and friction coefficient testing methods to support lamellar-repulsive mechanism of hydration lubrication. It has been confirmed experimentally that phospholipidic multi-bilayers are essentially described as lamellar frictionless lubricants protecting the surface of the joints against wear. At the hydrophilicity limit, the low friction would then be due to (a) lamellar slippage of bilayers and (b) a short-range (nanometer-scale) repulsion between the interfaces of negatively charged (PO4−) cartilage surfaces, and in addition, contribution of the extracellular matrix (ECM) collagen fibers, hyaluronate, proteoglycans aggregates (PGs), glycoprotein termed lubricin and finally, lamellar PLs phases. In this paper we demonstrate experimentally that the pH sensitivity of cartilage to friction provides a novel concept in joint lubrication on charged surfaces.

Friction coefficient of lamellar slippage of phospholipid bilayers attached to articular cartilage (AC) surfaces with a supporting contribution of other components over pH.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide