Participant-specific and Generic Poromechanical Modelling of the Knee Joints

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Did you know that the fluid in your knee cartilages and menisci supports at least 60% of the impact force to your knees when you land to the ground from a jump? The fluid pressure is reduced with fluid flowing out of the tissues and more tissue deformation in your knee will be developed if you stand still afterwards. The fluid also fulfills the life-essential metabolic functions, because cartilage has no blood vessels. My team develops computational models to understand the roles of fluid pressure and flow in the mechanical function and tissue metabolism of the knee. The human knee is a living mechanism that includes articular cartilages and menisci, which contain 65-80% fluid that produces fluid pressure and flow under knee compression. Computer knee models can be used to interpret the normal function of the knee and the consequences of sports injury and surgery on the knee. The proposed research enables advances through two aspects: (1) to determine the roles of the fluid pressure and flow in knee cartilages and menisci in load transmission and tissue metabolism; and (2) to extend research results obtained from individuals to a large population. As one example, new knowledge in knee biomechanics will facilitate the design of exercise strategies to slow down the aging process in knee cartilage. A robust knee model can also be used in developing next-generation humanoid robots. My team has pioneered the study of fluid-induced mechanics of the knee, specifically poromechanics, using specimen- or participant-specific modelling: our models are built on the knee anatomy of pig specimens or human participants. Fresh pig knees are used to aid model development and reduce the use of participants. This has been the innovative feature of my research as knowledge of fluid pressure and flow in cartilage and meniscus may aid tissue engineering. In order to extend research outcomes to a diverse population, we will develop one generic knee model for each sub-population that will be used to potentially predict the knee biomechanics for millions of people. The generic model will be modified from a participant-specific model using parameters derived from a variety of knee profiles from public databases, representing the targeted population. With this approach the generic model will enable predicting biomechanical behaviour for a sub-population rather than a few participants. A universal understanding may be better achieved with generic models, which will promote practical applications. This research will deliver fully tested modelling methods and sample generic models freely available to the public for pure research purposes or clinical applications. The generic models can be used to predict the biomechanics of normal and impaired knees for targeted populations, while the participant-specific models could be adapted to aid the design of patient-specific implants.