Cartilage repair is required in a number of orthopaedic conditions and rheu
matic diseases. From a macroscopic viewpoint, the complete repair of an art
icular cartilage defect requires integration of opposing cartilage surfaces
or the integration of repair tissue with the surrounding host cartilage. H
owever, integrative cartilage repair does not occur readily or predictably
in vivo. Consideration of the 'integrative cartilage repair process', at le
ast in the relatively early stages, as the formation of a adhesive suggests
several biomechanical approaches for characterizing the properties of the
repair tissue. Both strength of materials and fracture mechanics approaches
for characterizing adhesives have recently been applied to the study of in
tegrative cartilage repair. Experimental configurations, such as the single
-lap adhesive test, have been adapted to determine the strength of the biol
ogical repair that occurs between sections of bovine cartilage during expla
nt culture, as well as the strength of adhesive materials that are applied
to opposing cartilage surfaces. A variety of fracture mechanics test proced
ures, such as the (modified) single edge notch, 'T' peel, dynamic shear, an
d trouser tear tests, have been used to assess Mode I, II, and III fracture
toughness values of normal articular cartilage and, in some cases, cartila
ginous tissue undergoing integrative repair. The relationships between adhe
sive biomechanical properties and underlying cellular and molecular process
es during integrative cartilage repair remain to be elucidated. The determi
nation of such relationships may allow the design of tissue engineering pro
cedures to stimulate integrative cartilage repair.