Novel Hip Osteoarthritis Model Secondary to Femoroacetabular Impingement in Immature Rabbits

Purpose: Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) is recognized as a leading cause of hip osteoarthritis (OA), and recent molecular biological and transcriptomic analyses have identified the key molecules and pathways that contribute to hip OA progression. Animal models are essential as a platform for studying disease mechanisms, but there are limited animal models of hip OA secondary to FAI. Recently, we proposed novel approach to intentionally create an injury to the proximal femoral epiphysis of an immature rabbit hip, and confirmed a head-neck cam-type deformity at 4 weeks after injury. However, how this induced head-neck deformity induce macroscopic cartilage impingement and damage were not documented. This study aimed to determine whether a surgically induced physis injury can reproduce cartilage damages similar to those seen in cam-type FAI in humans.