Experimental and Computational Investigation of Mechanisms Governing Soft Tissue Interfaces

这项拨款将确定在软组织界面上控制机械行为的机制。软组织界面是两种软生物材料结合在一起的地方。这些都是自然发生的，比如在肌肉和肌腱之间的界面。这些也发生在手术和愈合的情况下，如局灶性软骨修复。这些界面通常在空间上是不均匀的，这意味着材料的刚度和柔软度随特定位置而变化。这已经通过显微镜等成像技术得到证实。这种非均质性如何影响跨界面的力学行为尚不清楚。当两个软组织结合在一起时，它们的机械相互作用可以由摩擦、粘附和新组织在界面上的生长产生。这项工作将首先进行实验来测量软组织界面处力学行为的空间异质性。这项工作将建立计算模型来确定控制这种行为的机制。本研究结果将为软组织界面研究提供新的基础见解。这些见解可用于改善软组织损伤的外科修复，并可用于设计仿生软机器人。这项研究的结果将在外展活动中与更广泛的公众分享，并将与本科生和研究生分享。软材料界面是软组织修复与再生的重要领域，也是软机器人技术的重要应用领域。控制软组织界面力学的现象尚不完全清楚。本项目将利用体外软骨-软骨整合模型系统对这些现象进行实验和计算探索。研究小组将进行实验来量化软骨-软骨界面的空间变化位移。与此同时，研究团队将进行量化体积行为、摩擦行为、粘附行为、膨胀行为和新软骨材料行为的实验。随后，将使用量化行为生成有限元模型来解释空间变化的位移数据。模型有望揭示控制软组织界面的基本现象。这项研究的结果将整合到K12、本科、研究生和更广泛的公共教育中。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This grant will identify the mechanisms that govern mechanical behavior at soft tissue interfaces. Soft tissue interfaces are where two soft biological materials come together. These occur naturally, such as at the interface between muscle and tendon. These also occur in surgical and healing contexts, such as in focal cartilage repair. These interfaces are often spatially heterogeneous, which means that the stiffness and softness of the material varies with specific location. This has been shown using imaging techniques such as microscopy. How this heterogeneity affects the mechanical behavior across the interface is not known. When two soft tissues come together, their mechanical interactions can arise from friction, adhesion, and from the growth of new tissue across the interface. This work will first conduct experiments to measure spatial heterogeneity of the mechanical behavior at soft tissue interfaces. The work will then build computational models to identify the mechanisms governing this behavior. The results of this research will provide new fundamental insight into soft tissue interfaces. These insights can be used to improve surgical repair of soft tissue damage and can be used to design bio-inspired soft robotics. The results from this research will be shared with the broader public at outreach events, and will be shared with undergraduate and graduate students. Soft material interfaces are relevant to repair and regeneration of soft tissues, and to the application of soft robotics. The phenomena governing the mechanics at soft tissue interfaces is incompletely understood. This project will use a model system of in vitro cartilage-cartilage integration to experimentally and computationally probe those phenomena. The research team will conduct experiments to quantify spatially variant displacement at the cartilage-cartilage interface. In tandem, the research team will conduct experiments to quantify the bulk behavior, frictional behavior, adhesive behavior, swelling behavior and neocartilage material behavior. Subsequently, finite element models will be generated using the quantified behavior to interpret spatially variant displacement data. Models are expected to reveal the fundamental phenomena governing soft tissue interfaces. Results from this research will be integrated into K12, undergraduate, graduate, and broader public education.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.