MICRO-COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY SYSTEM

我们想为特殊外科医院购买一台微型计算机断层扫描（micro-CT）系统，以获取骨样本的高分辨率形态测量和密度信息。一些NIH资助的研究者在我们的机构和纽约市的其他学术机构正在研究骨骼的发育、修复和适应。对这些研究人员来说，理解骨骼的完整性（生物、化学和机械的影响使骨骼成为如此独特的组织）是他们研究的基本部分。利用分子生物学和遗传学的进步，这些研究人员正在利用小型动物模型将生物学和工程学整合到体内实验中，以检查骨骼的组成、结构和功能之间的关系，从而使骨骼发挥其独特的作用。购买微型ct系统将提供这些动物小骨骼的重要详细结构信息，这将补充成分测量（来自红外成像）和功能数据（来自机械测试和有限元分析）。例如，micro-CT能够以几乎相同的分辨率（<20微米）分辨形态细节，就像我们能够用红外成像分辨矿物和基质成分特性（< 10微米）一样，创造了独特的能力，可以在组织组织的超微结构水平上检查小梁骨的成分-结构-功能关系。微型ct的价值已在初步研究中得到证实，该研究借鉴了荷兰的一个系统。然而，在我们机构拥有一个系统所带来的大量研究人员和大量新的研究问题，远远超过了我们在其他系统上获得足够时间的能力。micro-CT系统的拨款将在骨骼完整性核心中心内进行管理，这是一个新的nih赞助中心（p30 AR46121），由行政核心组织，研究核心是分析显微镜，红外成像和机械测试。微型ct系统将被安置在分析显微镜核心内，其使用、维护和监督的政策和程序将遵循核心中心已经制定的政策和程序。这一管理程序将确保设备的最佳使用、长期运行和维护，作为机构对核心中心承诺的一部分。

We would like to purchase a microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) system for the Hospital for Special Surgery to acquire high resolution morphometry and density information from bone samples. Several NIH- sponsored investigators at our institution and at other academic institutions in New York City are studying bone development, repair, and adaptation. For these investigators, understanding skeletal integrity (the biological, chemical, and mechanical influences that make bone such a distinctive tissue) is a fundamental part of their research. Taking advantage of advances in molecular biology and genetics, these researchers are integrating biology and engineering into in vivo experiments using small anhnal models to examine the relation between composition, structure, and function that allows the skeleton to fulfill its unique role. The purchase of a micro-CT system will provide crucial detailed structural information on the small bones from these animals that will complement compositional measurements (from infrared imaging) and functional data (from mechanical testing and finite element analyses). For example, the ability to resolve morphomet:ric details at nearly the same resolution (<20 microns) with micro-CT as we are able to resolve mineral and matrix compositional properties (< 10 microns) with infrared imaging creates unique capabilities to examine composition-structure-function relations in trabecular bone at ultrastructural levels of tissue organization. The value of micro-CT has been demonstrated in preliminary studies in which time has been borrowed on a system in The Netherlands. However, the large number of investigators who could benefit and the large number of new research questions that will arise by having a system at our institution far outweighs our ability to acquire sufficient time on other systems. The grant for the micro-CT system will be administered within the Core Center for Skeletal Integrity, a new NIH-sponsored center (p30 AR46121) organized under an Administrative Core with research cores in Analytical Microscopy, Infrared Imaging, and Mechanical Testing. The micro-CT system will be housed within the Analytical Microscopy core, and policies and procedures for its use, maintenance, and oversight will follow from those already established for the Core Center. This administrative procedure will insure optimal use, long-term operation, and maintenance of the equipment as part of the institution's commitment to the Core Center.