Objective To explore rabbit osteoarthritis model and evaluate the cartilage degeneration of rabbits by DTI. Methods 24 New Zealand adult rabbits were divided into A, B, C,D groups randomly,and establish articular cartilage degeneration animal model in early middle and later periods, D group as the control group. FA and ADC values of articular cartilage were measured. Observe knee joint cartilage through histological HE staining and Alcian blue staining. Results The cartilage differences of anisotropyand diffusion characteristic between cases and controls were statistically significantly. The FA values gradually decreased while the ADC values increased at early stage then decreased. Conclusions DTI can quantitative analysis rabbit osteoarthritis cartilage degeneration.