The benefits and limitations of animal models for translational research in cartilage repair

Journal of Experimental Orthopaedics

Table 1 A comparison of various models used in preclinical models for the assessment of biomaterial strategies for cartilage defect repair to the human knee joint

Species	Breed	Age of skeletal maturity	Adult weight	Cartilage thickness	Calcified cartilage layer thickness	Bone plate thickness	Critical size defect	References
Human		18–22 years	60–90 kg	2.4–2.6 mm	0.1 mm	0.2–0.5 mm	10 mm	Chevrier (Chevrier et al. 2015), ASTM (Dahlin et al. 2014)
Rabbit	New Zealand White	9 months	3–4 kg	0.16–0.75 mm	0.1–0.15 mm	0.4–0.5 mm	3 mm	Chevrier (Chevrier et al. 2015). ASTM (Dahlin et al. 2014)
Dog	Mongrel, Beagle	1–2 years	15–30 kg	0.95–1.3 mm	-	-	4 mm	Ahern (Ahern et al. 2009), ASTM (Dahlin et al. 2014)
Mini-pig	Gottingen Mini-pig, Yucatan, Lee-sung	10 months–1 year	20–40 kg	1.5 mm–2.0 mm	-	-	6 mm	Ahern (Ahern et al. 2009), ASTM (Dahlin et al. 2014)
Pig	Large White	2 years	250 kg	1.5 mm-2.0 mm	-	-	6 mm	Ahern (Ahern et al. 2009), ASTM (Dahlin et al. 2014)
Goat	Spanish, Dairy, Boer Cross, Saanan	2–3 years	40–70 kg	0.8–2 mm	0.2 mm	0.3 mm	6 mm	Patil (Patil et al. 2014), ASTM (Dahlin et al. 2014), Frisbie (Frisbie et al. 2009),
Sheep	Suffolk, Texel	2–3 years	35–80 kg	0.7–1.7 mm	0.2 mm	0.7 mm	7 mm	Chevrier (Chevrier et al. 2015), ASTM (Dahlin et al. 2014)
Horse	Mixed, Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse	2–4 years	500–600 kg	2.0–3.0 mm	0.2 mm	0.7 mm	9 mm	Chevrier (Chevrier et al. 2015), ASTM (Dahlin et al. 2014)