Availability of advanced computational technology has fundamentally altered the investigative paradigm in the field of biomechanics. Armed with sophisticated computational tools, researchers are seeking answers to fundamental questions by exploring complex biomechanical phenomena at the molecular, cellular, tissue and organ levels. The computational armamentarium includes such diverse tools as the ab initio quantum mechanical and molecular dynamics methods at the atomistic scales and the finite element, boundary element, meshfree as well as immersed boundary and lattice-Boltzmann methods at the continuum scales. Multiscale methods that link various scales are also being developed. While most applications require forward analysis, e.g., finding deformations and stresses as a result of loading, others involve determination of constitutive parameters based on tissue imaging and inverse analysis. This book provides a glimpse of the diverse and important roles that modern computational technology is playing in various areas of biomechanics including biofluids and mass transfer, cardiovascular mechanics, musculoskeletal mechanics, soft tissue mechanics, and biomolecular mechanics.

The goal of tissue engineering is to repair or replace tissues and organs by delivering implanted cells, scaffolds, DNA, proteins, and/or protein fragments at surgery. Tissue engineering merges aspects of engineering and biology, and many rapid achievements in this field have arisen in part from significant advances in cell and molecular biology. Functional Tissue Engineering addresses the key issues in repairing and replacing load-bearing structures effectively. What are the thresholds of force, stress, and strain that normal tissues transmit or encounter? What are the mechanical properties of these tissues when subjected to expected in vivo stresses and strains, as well as under failure conditions? Do tissue engineered repairs and replacements need to exactly duplicate the structure and function of the normal tissue or organ? When developing these implants in culture, how do physical factors such as mechanical stress regulate cell behavior in bioreactors as compared to signals experienced in vivo? And finally, can tissue engineers mechanically stimulate these implants before surgery to produce a better repair outcome? Chapters written by well-known researchers discuss these matters and provide guidelines and a summary of the current state of technology. Functional Tissue Engineering will be useful to students and researchers as it will remind tissue engineers of the clinical importance of restoring function to damaged tissue and structures. Further, the book clarifies the identification of critical structural and mechanical requirements needed for each construct. Functional Tissue Engineering also provides an invaluable resource to help tissue engineers incorporate these functional criteria into the design, manufacture, and optimization of tissue engineered products. Finally it serves as a reference and teaching text for the rapidly increasing population of students and investigators in the field of tissue engineering.

Bringing together the most up-to-date research on post-traumatic arthritis (PTA) and its management, this book is a comprehensive presentation of the current thinking on all aspects of the mechanisms of joint injury and subsequent development of PTA. Divided into thematic sections, it includes discussions of the incidence and burden of PTA, both in society at large and in the military population specifically; the relevant experimental work on PTA, from basic science to animal models; peri-articular tissue responses to of joint injury and potential mechanisms of PTA; the current clinical assessment and treatment of common joint injuries leading to PTA; and emerging technologies and treatments for PTA, including biomarkers and stem cell therapies. Taken together, it will be an invaluable resource for orthopedic surgeons, rheumatologists and other joint injury researchers and clinicians.

Availability of advanced computational technology has fundamentally altered the investigative paradigm in the field of biomechanics. Armed with sophisticated computational tools, researchers are seeking answers to fundamental questions by exploring complex biomechanical phenomena at the molecular, cellular, tissue and organ levels. The computational armamentarium includes such diverse tools as the ab initio quantum mechanical and molecular dynamics methods at the atomistic scales and the finite element, boundary element, meshfree as well as immersed boundary and lattice-Boltzmann methods at the continuum scales. Multiscale methods that link various scales are also being developed. While most applications require forward analysis, e.g., finding deformations and stresses as a result of loading, others involve determination of constitutive parameters based on tissue imaging and inverse analysis. This book provides a glimpse of the diverse and important roles that modern computational technology is playing in various areas of biomechanics including biofluids and mass transfer, cardiovascular mechanics, musculoskeletal mechanics, soft tissue mechanics, and biomolecular mechanics.

Cell mechanics and cellular engineering may be defined as the application of principles and methods of engineering and life sciences toward fundamental understanding of structure-function relationships in normal and pathological cells and the development of biological substitutes to restore cellular functions. This definition is derived from one developed for tissue engineering at a 1988 NSF workshop. The reader of this volume will see the definition being applied and stretched to study cell and tissue structure-function relationships. The best way to define a field is really to let the investigators describe their areas of study. Perhaps cell mechanics could be compartmentalized by remembering how some of the earliest thinkers wrote about the effects of mechanics on growth. As early as 1638, Galileo hypothesized that gravity and of living mechanical forces place limits on the growth and architecture organisms. It seems only fitting that Robert Hooke, who gave us Hooke's law of elasticity, also gave us the word "cell" in his 1665 text, Micrographid, to designate these elementary entities of life. Julius Wolffs 1899 treatise on the function and form of the trabecular architecture provided an incisive example of the relationship between the structure of the body and the mechanical load it bears. In 1917, D' Arcy Thompson's On Growth and Form revolutionized the analysis of biological processes by introducing cogent physical explanations of the relationships between the structure and function of cells and organisms.

The goal of tissue engineering is to repair or replace tissues and organs by delivering implanted cells, scaffolds, DNA, proteins, and/or protein fragments at surgery. Tissue engineering merges aspects of engineering and biology, and many rapid achievements in this field have arisen in part from significant advances in cell and molecular biology. Functional Tissue Engineering addresses the key issues in repairing and replacing load-bearing structures effectively. What are the thresholds of force, stress, and strain that normal tissues transmit or encounter? What are the mechanical properties of these tissues when subjected to expected in vivo stresses and strains, as well as under failure conditions? Do tissue engineered repairs and replacements need to exactly duplicate the structure and function of the normal tissue or organ? When developing these implants in culture, how do physical factors such as mechanical stress regulate cell behavior in bioreactors as compared to signals experienced in vivo? And finally, can tissue engineers mechanically stimulate these implants before surgery to produce a better repair outcome? Chapters written by well-known researchers discuss these matters and provide guidelines and a summary of the current state of technology. Functional Tissue Engineering will be useful to students and researchers as it will remind tissue engineers of the clinical importance of restoring function to damaged tissue and structures. Further, the book clarifies the identification of critical structural and mechanical requirements needed for each construct. Functional Tissue Engineering also provides an invaluable resource to help tissue engineers incorporate these functionalcriteria into the design, manufacture, and optimization of tissue engineered products. Finally it serves as a reference and teaching text for the rapidly increasing population of students and investigators in the field of tissue engineering.

Bringing together the most up-to-date research on post-traumatic arthritis (PTA) and its management, this book is a comprehensive presentation of the current thinking on all aspects of the mechanisms of joint injury and subsequent development of PTA. Divided into thematic sections, it includes discussions of the incidence and burden of PTA, both in society at large and in the military population specifically; the relevant experimental work on PTA, from basic science to animal models; peri-articular tissue responses to of joint injury and potential mechanisms of PTA; the current clinical assessment and treatment of common joint injuries leading to PTA; and emerging technologies and treatments for PTA, including biomarkers and stem cell therapies. Taken together, it will be an invaluable resource for orthopedic surgeons, rheumatologists and other joint injury researchers and clinicians.