THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF CARTILAGE GROWTH

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Articular cartilage functions to carry and distribute large compressive loads in synovial joints and serves an important role in lubrication by minimizing frictional forces and decreasing wear. Cartilage serves a crucial role in the growth of long bones and there exist numerous factors that disrupt normal growth in immature bones including congenital diseases and traumatic injuries. There is a virtual absence of the formalization or application of quantitative growth models to describe developing cartilage. The specific goals of this proposal are to develop a growth theory relevant to cartilage and to apply the theory using experimental data gathered from growing mice in an attempt to model the kinematics of cartilage growth in the mouse femoral head. A growth elasticity theory will be generalized to an arbitrary number of constituents and will include appropriate remodeling equations. Stereological measurements will be made in samples from growing mice to obtain theoretical model parameters to describe the growth kinematics in articular cartilage. A long-term goal of the proposed research is to formulate models of whole joint growth to study and design methods for the prevention and treatment of cartilage abnormalities.