JIAOE SHENG¹, ZUMIN YI², SANSHAN HE¹, QINGCHAO WU¹, XIA HUANG¹, GUOQING YAN¹, YUFANG DAI^1,*, LINCHONG SU^1,*

BIOCELL, Vol.48, No.7, pp. 1095-1104, 2024, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2024.028421 - 03 July 2024

Abstract Introduction: Cholic acid (CA) is a natural steroid useful in treating chronic bronchitis and cholecystitis. On the other hand, its potential impact on osteoarthritis (OA) is unknown. Objective: Using an in vitro and in vivo osteoarthritis model, we sought to assess the chondroprotective properties of CA. Methods: We employed the Cell Counting Kit-8 to measure the impact of CA on chondrocyte activity to assess the toxicity of the cells. Multiple molecular biology experimental techniques were used to investigate potential signaling pathways that CA may use to prevent inflammation and give chondrocytes protection. Furthermore, how CA affects the OA… More >

KAN OUYANG^1,2,#, MEIQUAN XU^3,#, YUJIE LIANG⁴, XIAO XU², LIMEI XU², CAINING WEN^1,2, ZHUAN QIN², YIXIN XIE², HUAWEI ZHANG⁵, LI DUAN^2,*, DAPING WANG^1,2,5,*

BIOCELL, Vol.46, No.6, pp. 1521-1526, 2022, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2022.018788 - 07 February 2022

Abstract There is no efficient tracking system available for the therapeutic molecules delivered to cartilage. The dense matrix covering the cartilage surface is the main biological barrier that the therapeutic molecules must overcome. In this study, we aimed to establish a system that can dynamically and effectively track the therapeutic molecules delivered to cartilage. To this aim, we adopted bovine and human cartilage explants as ex vivo models for chondrocyte-targeted exosome dispersion. The efficiency of drug delivery was evaluated using frozen sections. The results of this study showed that the penetration and distribution of chondrocyte-targeted exosomes in More >

Zhongzheng Wang^1,2, Fei Tian³, Shaobai Wang³, Songtao Ai², Tsung-Yuan Tsai^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 116-117, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.07690

Abstract This article has no abstract. More >

Dominique P. Pioletti^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 29-30, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.07050

Abstract From a mechanical point of view, articular cartilage can be considered as a viscoelastic porous material. Its dissipation capabilities are therefore central for its functional behavior. Based on this observation, we focused our studies of dissipative aspects in cartilage either from a biomechanical or mechanobiological point of view. In particular, we capitalized on the new obtained insight of dissipative behavior or sources in materials for the development of functional biomaterials for cartilage tissue engineering. We pioneered in proposing dissipation as a mechanobiological variable for cartilage tissue engineering [1]. As can be observed on Fig. 1,… More >

Deng Li¹, Shuwei Chang^1,*

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.120, No.2, pp. 305-318, 2019, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2019.06475

Abstract Mechanical force plays a critical role in the remodeling and degradation of cartilage tissues. The cartilage tissue generates, absorbs, and transmits mechanical force, enabling specific biological processes in our body. A moderate intensity mechanical force is necessary for cartilage tissue remodeling and the adaptation of biomechanical properties, but a high intensity mechanical force can lead to pathological degradation of cartilage tissue. However, the molecular mechanism of cartilage degradation is still unclear. We use full atomistic simulations with SMD simulations to investigate whether the magnitude of mechanical force affects the unbinding pathway of the MMP8-Aggrecan_IGD complex. More >

Lilan Gao^1,2,*, Qingxian Yuan^1,2, Ruixin Li^3,*, Lei Chen^1,2, Chunqiu Zhang^1,2, Xizheng Zhang^1,2

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.15, No.2, pp. 85-98, 2018, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2018.00329

Abstract Silk fibroin-typeⅡcollagen scaffold was made by 3D printing technique and freeze-drying method, and its mechanical properties were studied by experiments and theoretical prediction. The results show that the three-dimensional silk fibroin-typeⅡ collagen scaffold has good porosity and water absorption, which is (89.3%+3.26%) and (824.09%+93.05%), respectively. With the given strain value, the stress of scaffold decreases rapidly firstly and then tends to be stable during the stress relaxation. Both initial and instantaneous stresses increase with increase of applied strain value. The creep strains of scaffold with different stress levels show the two stages: the rapidly increasing… More >

Yongren Wu^∗, Sarah Cisewski^∗, Barton L. Sachs^†, Hai Yao^∗,†,‡

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.10, No.2, pp. 159-182, 2013, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2013.010.159

Abstract This study examines the effects of cartilage endplate (CEP) calcification and the injection of intervertebral disc (IVD) cells on the nutrition distributions inside the human IVD under physiological loading conditions using multiphasic finite element modeling. The human disc was modeled as an inhomogeneous mixture consisting of a charged elastic solid, water, ions (Na⁺ and Cl⁻), and nutrient solute(oxygen,glucose and lactate) phases. The effect of the endplate calcification was simulated by a reduction of the tissue porosity (i.e., water volume faction) from 0.60 to 0.48. The effect of cell injection was simulated by increasing the cell density… More >

Taffetani M.¹, Bertarelli E.^1,2, Gottardi R.^3,4, Raiteri R.⁵, Vena P.^1,2

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.87, No.5, pp. 433-460, 2012, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2012.087.433

Abstract Dynamic nanoindentation is a novel nanomechanical testing that is being increasingly used to characterize the frequency response of viscoelastic materials and of soft hydrated biological tissues at the micrometric and nanometric length scales. This technique is able to provide more information than those obtained by simple indentation; however, its interpretation is still an open issue for complex materials such as the case of anisotropic biological tissues that generally have a high water content. This work presents a numerical model to characterize the frequency response of poro-elastic tissues subjected to harmonic indentation loading with particular regard… More >

Wangping Duan^∗, Lei Wei^†, Juntao Zhang^∗, Yongzhuang Hao^∗, Chunjiang Li^∗, Hao Li^∗, Qi Li^∗, Quanyou Zhang^‡, Weiyi Chen^‡, Xiaochun Wei^∗,§

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.8, No.4, pp. 253-274, 2011, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2011.008.253

Abstract The cytoskeleton network is believed to play an important role in the biomechanical properties of the chondrocyte. Ours and other laboratories have demonstrated that chondrocytes exhibit a viscoelastic solid creep behavior in vitro and that viscoelastic properties decrease in osteoarthritic chondrocytes. In this study, we aimed to understand whether the alteration of viscoelastic properties is associated with changes in cytoskeleton components of ageing chondrocytes from rabbit knee articular cartilage. Three age groups were used for this study: young (2-months-old, N=23), adult (8-months-old, N=23), and old (31-months-old, N=23) rabbit groups. Cartilage structure and proteoglycan and type II… More >

D.D. D’Lima^*, P.C. Chen^†, O. Kessler^‡, H.R. Hoenecke^*, C.W. Colwell Jr.^∗§

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.8, No.2, pp. 123-134, 2011, DOI:10.3970/mcb.2011.008.123

Abstract The menisci are important biomechanical components of the knee. We developed and validated a finite element model of meniscal replacement to assess the effect of surgical fixation technique on contact behavior and knee stability. The geometry of femoral and tibial articular cartilage and menisci was segmented from magnetic resonance images of a normal cadaver knee using MIMICS (Materialise, Leuven, Belgium). A finite element mesh was generated using HyperWorks (Altair Inc, Santa Ana, CA). A finite element solver (Abaqus v6.9, Simulia, Providence, RI) was used to compute contact area and stresses under axial loading and to… More >