Fang Liu1,
Rajeev Chaudhary2, Samuel A. Hurley1, Alexey Samosonov1,
Andrew L. Alexander1, Sean C. L. Deoni3, Walter F.
Block1, 2, Richard Kijowski4
1Department
of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United
States; 2Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States; 3Division of Engineering,
Brown University, Providence, RI, United States; 4Department of
Radiology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
Multi-component T2 mapping using mcDESPOT was performed at 3.0T on a control and trypsin degraded ex vivo fresh bovine patella cartilage specimen. Water fraction and T2 relaxation time for the water component tightly bound to macromolecules (Wm) and bulk water loosely bound to the proteoglycan matrix (Wb) were measured for the control and trypsin degraded cartilage. Enzymatic removal of proteoglycan from cartilage resulted in a decrease in water fraction of the Wm component and an increase in the T2 relaxation time of the Wm and Wb components of cartilage.