Samenvatting
The knee joints of adult rabbits were subjected to daily one hour intervals of impulsive loading equivalent to their body weight at 60 cpm. They developed changes in their knee joints consistent with those of degenerative joint disease. The cartilage destruction was preceded by stiffening of the underlying subchrondral bone. Numerous healing trabecular microfractures were associated with this increase stiffening. Similar microfractures have beenobserved in human specimens. The implications of these findings to bone remodelling and osteoarthritis are discussed.