This twice revised application proposes to study the response of osteoblasts to mechanical strains. A new and novel device will be used for mechanically deforming a flexible substrate on which osteoblast cultures are attached in three distinct phases of development, proliferation, differentiation and phenotypic expression, and extracellular matrix mineralization. The mechanisms by which the mechanical deformations modulate osteoblastic activity will be studied as a function of strain amplitudes, frequency, duty cycle, and duration. DNA synthesis, protein synthesis and accumulation, gene expression of specific extracellular matrix proteins, and rates of extracellular matrix mineralization will be measured. In addition, intracellular architectural response to the major cytoskeletal elements will be examined.
| Grottkau, B E; Noordin, S; Shortkroff, S et al. (2002) Effect of mechanical perturbation on the release of PGE(2) by macrophages in vitro. J Biomed Mater Res 59:288-93 |
| Meazzini, M C; Toma, C D; Schaffer, J L et al. (1998) Osteoblast cytoskeletal modulation in response to mechanical strain in vitro. J Orthop Res 16:170-80 |
| Carvalho, R S; Schaffer, J L; Gerstenfeld, L C (1998) Osteoblasts induce osteopontin expression in response to attachment on fibronectin: demonstration of a common role for integrin receptors in the signal transduction processes of cell attachment and mechanical stimulation. J Cell Biochem 70:376-90 |
