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Syed A Jamal^*
Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.10, No.4, pp. 267-273, 2013, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2013.010.267
Abstract Human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells (hUCMSCs) were subjected to in vitro osteogenic differentiation using a novel combination of signaling molecules including BMP-2 and purmorphamine. Differentiation outcomes were assessed by calcein staining and by microscopic examination of the cytoskeleton. Calcein staining showed appreciable degree of calcium mineralization in cell culture, and changes in the morphological attributes of differentiating cells were observed vis-a-vis the actin cytoskeleton. Finally, positive calcein staining, altered cytoskeletal profile, and stress fiber formation in treated cells demonstrated, for the first time, a potentially synergistic interplay between BMP-2 and the hedgehog agonist, purmorphamine. More >

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Annette Doyle^*, Steven R. Crosby^†, David R. Burton^*, Francis Lilley^*, Gary Johnston^*, Winder B. Perez^‡, Terri G. Kinzy^‡, Mark F. Murphy^*,†,§
Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.10, No.4, pp. 275-288, 2013, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2013.010.275
Abstract Many diseases including cancer are associated with a disorganised cytoskeleton. The process of characterising how cytoskeletal disorganisation affects the mechanical properties of cells offers the potential to develop new drugs and treatment regimes that may exploit mechanical weakness in cells and tissues. This work investigated the role of actin associated proteins, namely tropomyosin 1 (tpm1p) and mitochondrial distribution and morphology protein 20 (mdm20p), on the mechanical and morphological properties of yeast cells. For the first time it was shown that deletion of both the TPM1 and MDM20 genes resulted in a decrease in Young’s modulus More >

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1103

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R. V. Uddanwadiker^*
Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.10, No.4, pp. 289-302, 2013, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2013.010.289
Abstract The aim of the study is to find most optimum combination of crown material and adhesive to avoid loosening and thereby failure of restored tooth. This study describes the Thermo-Mechanical analysis of restored molar tooth crown for determination of the stress levels due to thermal and mechanical loads on restored molar tooth. The potential use of the 3-D model was demonstrated and analyzed using different materials for crown. Thermal strain, stress and deformation were measured at hot and cold conditions in ANSYS and correlated with analytical calculation and existing experimental data for model validation and More >

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1291

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G. Geethanjali^∗, C. Sujatha^†
Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.10, No.4, pp. 303-317, 2013, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2013.010.303
Abstract This paper reports a study on the biomechanical response of a human hand-arm model to random vibrations of the steering wheel of a tractor. An anatomically accurate bone-only hand-arm model from TurboSquidTM was used to obtain a finite element (FE) model to understand the Hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS), which is a neurological and vascular disorder caused by exposure of the human hand-arm to prolonged vibrations. Modal analysis has been done to find out the first few natural frequencies and mode shapes of the system. Coupling of degrees of freedom (DOF) had to be done in… More >

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