Abstract #0059

Saar G, Navon G, Shinar H

Intact and PG depleted bovine cartilage-bone plugs, equilibrated in deuterated saline were studied by 1D 2H double quantum filtered spectroscopic MRI. At rest, we have found that the depletion had a minimal effect on the quadrupolar splitting indicating no change in the orientation of the fibers. Intact and depleted plugs exhibited different changes in their quadrupolar splittings when subjected to mechanical compression. Both intact and depleted cartilage lost the orientation dependence under osmotic stress indicating the loss of macroscopic order.