Tendon injuries such as those of repetitive overuse and cumulative trauma (e.g., carpal tunnel syndrome) are a major source of pain and disability, yet the mechanism of low-level injury and progression of tendon pathology is unknown. Animal models of tendon healing, while important, do not provide insight into the response of tendons to cumulative wear and tear. A comprehensive series of experiments is proposed herein to systematically characterize damage initiation and progression resulting from controlled levels of imposed mechanical fatigue. A novel mechanical testing protocol will be developed and implemented to reproducibly induce increasing levels of tendon damage which will be quantified using engineering damage parameters. Additional indices of tendon viscoelastic behavior will be obtained from mathematical modeling of the experimental data. Microstructural studies on fatigue-loaded tendons will be used to define the physical manifestation of fatigue damage and to correlate the structural changes with mechanical measures of degradation. Successful completion of these proposed studies will establish the necessary damage-degradation relationships needed to assess in vivo cellular responses following tendon injury.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)
Type
Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F32)
Project #
5F32AR049967-02
Application #
6760015
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-F10 (20))
Program Officer
Panagis, James S
Project Start
2003-06-01
Project End
2005-05-31
Budget Start
2004-06-01
Budget End
2005-05-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2004
Total Cost
$48,928
Indirect Cost
Name
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Department
Orthopedics
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
078861598
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10029
Fung, David T; Sereysky, Jedd B; Basta-Pljakic, Jelena et al. (2010) Second harmonic generation imaging and Fourier transform spectral analysis reveal damage in fatigue-loaded tendons. Ann Biomed Eng 38:1741-51
Fung, David T; Wang, Vincent M; Andarawis-Puri, Nelly et al. (2010) Early response to tendon fatigue damage accumulation in a novel in vivo model. J Biomech 43:274-9
Fung, David T; Wang, Vincent M; Laudier, Damien M et al. (2009) Subrupture tendon fatigue damage. J Orthop Res 27:264-273
Laudier, Damien; Schaffler, Mitchell B; Flatow, Evan L et al. (2007) Novel procedure for high-fidelity tendon histology. J Orthop Res 25:390-5
Wang, Vincent M; Banack, Trevor M; Tsai, Christine W et al. (2006) Variability in tendon and knee joint biomechanics among inbred mouse strains. J Orthop Res 24:1200-7