SynthesisSports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)2022
The Influence of Running on Lower Limb Cartilage: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
- Immediate and Delayed Effects of Joint Loading Activities on Knee and Hip Cartilage: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Sports medicine - open · 2023Pooled it
- The Influence of Running Cadence Manipulation on Acute Cartilage Response in Distance Runners.Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports · 2026Article
- Impact of Running on the Risk and Progression of Knee Osteoarthritis: A Review of Current Evidence.Cureus · 2026Review
- Measures of resting cartilage structure and composition in runners with and without knee osteoarthritis.Osteoarthritis and cartilage open · 2026Article
- 3D-Printed Biohybrid PE/PCL Biphasic Osteochondral Plug for Knee Cartilage Repair.ACS materials Au · 2026Article
- Detection of physiological changes in knee cartilage using parametric T2 relaxation maps estimated with a dictionary method.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Article
- Running with rheumatoid arthritis: a qualitative study of Australian rheumatologists' perceptions and recommendations.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Associations among ankle cartilage composition and ultrasound based measures of cartilage health in those with chronic ankle instability.Clinical rheumatology · 2025Article
- Endogenous assessment of late gadolinium enhancement grey area in patients with chronic myocardial infarction using T1rho mapping.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2025Article
- 'The right advice': a qualitative study examining enablers and barriers to recreational running and beliefs about knee health following knee surgery.British journal of sports medicine · 2025Article
- Fears and beliefs about running in adults with chronic low back pain: a mixed methods study from the ASTEROID randomised controlled trial.Sports medicine - open · 2025Article
- Impact of contralateral pelvic drop and femoral adduction on the femoral head acetabular coverage: A study on the reproducibility of a new radiographic measurement method.Journal of experimental orthopaedics · 2025Article
- ShapeMed-Knee: A Dataset and Neural Shape Model Benchmark for Modeling 3D Femurs.IEEE transactions on medical imaging · 2025Article
- Article
- Genetic causal relationship between physical activity and osteoarthritis: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study.Archives of medical science : AMS · 2025Article
- From Tissue to System: What Constitutes an Appropriate Response to Loading?Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2025Review
- ShapeMed-Knee: A Dataset and Neural Shape Model Benchmark for Modeling 3D Femurs.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2024Article
- Can Foot Orthoses Benefit Symptomatic Runners? Mechanistic and Clinical Insights Through a Scoping Review.Sports medicine - open · 2024Article
- Effects of long-term running on the structure and biochemical composition of knee cartilage in males: a cross-sectional study.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2024Article
- Impact of treadmill running on distal femoral cartilage thickness: a cross-sectional study of professional athletes and healthy controls.BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRunning is a popular activity practiced worldwide. It is important to understand how running affects joint health to provide recommendations to sports medicine practitioners and runners.
objectiveOur aim was to summarize the influence of running on lower limb cartilage morphology and composition using quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
methodsProspective repeated-measures studies evaluating cartilage using MRI before and after running were included. Data sources included Pubmed, Embase, CINAHL, SportDiscus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Central Registry of Controlled Trials. Qualitative analyses considered the number and methodological quality ratings of studies based on the QualSyst tool, and recommendations were based on the strength of evidence (strong, moderate, limited, or very limited). Quantitative analysis involved meta-analyses, for which effect sizes were calculated as Hedge's g standardized mean differences.
resultsWe included 43 articles, assessing seven outcomes (lesions, volume, thickness, glycosaminoglycan content, and T1ρ, T2, and T2* relaxation times). Nineteen articles were rated as high quality, 24 were rated as moderate quality, and none were rated as low quality. Qualitative analyses suggest that running may cause an immediate reduction in knee cartilage volume, thickness, as well as T1ρ and T2 relaxation times immediately; however, these changes did not persist. Meta-analyses revealed a small and moderate decrease immediately following a single running bout in T2 relaxation time in the medial femur and tibia, respectively. Qualitative analyses indicated that the influence of repeated exposure to running on cartilage morphology and composition was limited. Despite conflicting evidence regarding pre-existing knee cartilage lesions, moderate evidence suggests that running does not lead to the formation of new lesions. Repeated running exposure did not cause changes to foot and ankle cartilage thickness or composition.
conclusionsChanges to lower limb cartilage following running are transient. Immediate changes to cartilage morphology and composition, which likely reflect natural fluid dynamics, do not persist and were generally not significant when pooled statistically. Results suggest that cartilage recovers well from a single running bout and adapts to repeated exposure. Given that moderate evidence indicates that running does not lead to new lesions, future trials should focus on clinical populations, such as those with osteoarthritis.
trial registrationNot applicable.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.