Articular cartilage with depth dependent ultra-layer structure is constructed by collagen fibrils, which is shown by histology having three distinct layers: the fibrils are mostly parallel to the surface, randomly distributed and mostly oriented perpendicular to the surface in superficial zone, middle zone and deep zone, respectively. Quantitative susceptibility mapping is particularly sensitive to molecular content and cellular arrangement, thus is suitable to probe such highly organized microstructure and evaluate its magnetic susceptibility. Our study shows a clear B0-orientation-dependent susceptibility contrast in the articular cartilage and that the collagen fibril orientations can be well measured by susceptibility tensor imaging.
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