BILATERAL CANINE MODEL OF OSTEOARTHRITIS

Objective. To determine whether bilateral arthroscopic anterior crucia te ligament (ACL) transection creates symmetrical osteoarthritis (OA) in canine knees.Methods. Six dogs underwent bilateral arthroscopic ACL transections. The animals were sacrificed at intervals ranging from 2 to 12 months post ACL transection. Both knees in each animal were ass essed for gross pathology, histology, and biochemistry. Results. The l imited invasiveness of arthroscopic ACL transection allowed bilateral ACL transections to be performed with minimal animal morbidity. Gross pathological, histological, and biochemical assessments of bilaterally ACL transected canine knees consistently confirmed the induction of O A changes in both knees. Of note, there was no significant difference in the degree of articular cartilage degeneration created in each pair of knees. Conclusion. Bilateral ACL transection induces symmetrical c anine knee OA. This approach provides a potent model for investigating fundamental OA mechanisms and therapeutic approaches, since one knee can be experimentally manipulated while the other knee is used as a co ntrol. This allows each animal to be its own internal control, avoidin g the interanimal variability associated with the unilateral canine OA model.