Chondrocytes deformation

Guilak F, Ratcliffe A, Mow VC (1995) Chondrocyte deformation and local tissue strain in articular cartilage a confocal microscopy study. J Orthop Res 13 410-421... 

Chondrocytes respond biologically to mechanical stimuli, and this is called mechanotransduction. Understanding cellular responses to mechanical stimuli and how they can be related to tissue level characteristics has many applications in biology, tissue engineering and medical science. Information about the mechanical properties of chondrocytes is fundamental to such research. Micropipette aspiration has been applied to investigate the deformation of single chondrocytes (Jones et al., 1999). It was found that human chondrocytes behave like viscoelastic solids. The Young s modulus of normal chondrocytes appeared to be very variable, but was of the order of 0.65 + 0.63 kPa. However, the viscoelastic behaviour was not quantified. 

Knight MM, van de Breevarrt Bravenboer J, Lee DA, van Osch GJ, Weinans H, Bader DL. Cell and nucleus deformation in compressed chondrocyte-alginate constructs Temporal changes and calculation of cell modulus. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2002 1570 1-8. 

Elastin is the major protein found in elastic fibers, which are located in the ECM of connective tissue of smooth muscle cells, endothelial and microvascular cells, chondrocytes, and fibroblasts. Elastic fibers allow tissues to expand and contract this is of particular importance to blood vessels, which must deform and reform repeatedly in response to the changes in intravascular pressure that occur with the contraction of the left ventricle of the heart. It is also important for the lungs, which stretch each time a breath is inhaled and return to their original shape with each exhalation. In addition to elastin, the elastic fibers contain microfibrils, which are composed of a number of acidic glycoproteins, the major ones being fibrillin-1 and fibrillin-2. 

Guilak, F., Jones, W.R., Ting-Beall, H.P., Lee, G.M. The deformation behavior and mechanical properties of chondrocytes in articular cartilage. Osteoarth. CartU. 7, 59-70 (1999)... 

Methods Chondrocyte biomechanics and biosynthesis have been measured in rabbit knee cartilage (in situ) and in the intact mouse knee (in vivo). Imaging is performed using two-photon excitation microscopy. Deformations of cells... 

Baaijens FP, Trickey WR, Laiusen TA et al. (2005) Large deformation finite element analysis of micropipette aspiration to determine the mechanical properties of the chondrocyte. Ann Biomed Eng 33 494-501... 

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