Dynamic Structure-Property Evolution at the Tendon-to-Bone Insertion

该奖项的研究目标是整合光学仪器设计，生物力学，生物化学和微观结构分析，以阐明和表征动态负载条件下胶原纤维重新排列和失效之间的关系。这项研究将提供系统的工程分析和预测模型，以评估组织损伤和退化，从而更好地优化恢复过程。这项研究的更广泛的愿景是，它将最终在实验和临床努力之间的协同活动，旨在突破受损肌腱-骨插入的临床治疗。这项研究将为医疗保健，科学，工程和整个社会领域做出重要贡献。为了将该项目的成果转移到学术界之外，PI将与NC生物技术中心合作。通过向当地公司进行演示以及与创业孵化器的互动，这种经验不仅使我们能够向组织工程领域的公司宣传这些成果，而且还可以收集他们对技术开发所必需的实验数据的反馈。该研究将成为我们研究生课程的基础，包括材料结构的基础知识和肌腱-骨连接的生物学方面。肌腱-骨连接是功能分级的结缔组织，其各向异性的生物力学功能密切依赖于区域生化成分和结构，从而起到缓解这些组织连接处应力集中的作用。 在该奖项下进行的研究将暴露和量化肌腱-骨插入物在不同载荷大小、相关载荷时间尺度（例如，应变率）、相互作用以及这些事件发生的顺序。同时，本构模型和有限元模型将被开发来预测肌腱-骨插入物在不同载荷条件下的反应。

The research objective of this award is to integrate optical instrument designs, biomechanical, biochemical, and microstructure analyses to elucidate and characterize relationships between collagen fiber re-alignment and failure under dynamic loading conditions. This investigation will provide systematic engineering analyses and predictive models to enable the assessment of tissue injury and degeneration for better optimization of the recovery processes. The broader vision for the research is that it will culminate in synergistic activities between experimental and clinical efforts aimed at a breakthrough in clinical treatments of damaged tendon-to-bone insertions. This research will make important contributions to fields within health care, science, engineering, and society as a whole. To transfer the outcomes of this project outside of the academic community, the PIs will work with the NC Biotechnology Center. Through presentations to local companies and interaction with startup incubators, this experience will permit us not only to advertise these outcomes to companies in the field of tissue engineering, but also collect feedback from them on the experimental data essential to their technology development. The proposed research will form the basis of our graduate courses, including the basics of the structure of materials and biological aspects of tendon-to-bone insertion.Tendon-to-bone insertions are functionally-graded connective tissues whose anisotropic biomechanical functions depend intimately on the regional biochemical composition and structure, thus functioning to alleviate stress concentration at the junction of these tissues. Studies conducted under this award will expose and quantify properties of tendon-to-bone insertions subjected to different magnitudes of loading, associated loading time-scales (e.g., strain rate), mutual interactions, as well as the order in which these events occur. In parallel, constitutive and finite element models will be developed to predict the response of tendon-to-bone insertions under different loading conditions.