H2020Индивидуална стипендия2017–2021

INpaCT · An interdisciplinary approach to uncover the mechanisms of progression of cartilage damage at the cellular and tissue levels

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2017-01-01 → 2021-08-30
Финансиране от ЕС: 267 793 €
Участници: 2
Схема: MSCA-IF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Механизмите на увреждане на хрущяла след травма се анализират чрез изследване на свойствата на клетките и техния матрикс. Разбирането на тези процеси е важно за разработването на по-ефективни методи за възстановяване на ставите и забавяне на остеоартрита.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

An interdisciplinary approach to uncover the mechanisms of progression of cartilage damage at the cellular and tissue levels

Osteoarthritis (OA) affects millions of people and is the most common cause of pain and physical disability in the world today, with huge social and economic costs. In Europe, over 40 million people are affected by OA. It is estimated that 130 million Europeans will suffer from OA by 2050. An estimated 52.5 million of people in the US suffer from OA and the total costs exceed $100 billion per year. Although age is a major risk factor for OA, joint injury also contributes to acute and long-term cartilage degradation in younger population. Presently, there is no treatment that can reverse or halt OA, other than pain-relief until joint replacement becomes necessary. Abnormal mechanical loading plays an important role in the progression of cartilage degeneration after injury. Since injured cartilage has limited intrinsic repair capacity, a thorough understanding of mechanobiological mechanisms at cellular and tissue levels in normal and pathological conditions is essential for developing effective treatments to restore function and prevent disease progression. INpaCT focuses on elucidating key players involved in the progression of cartilage damage following injury using sophisticated microscopic, spectroscopic and molecular biology techniques combined with computational modelling and optimization algorithms. This will provide novel insights into disease mechanisms and ultimately improved repair strategies. The overall goal of INpaCT is to explore the underlying mechanisms at cellular and tissue level in a controlled in vitro model of osteoarthritis progression. We aim to determine poro-viscoelastic properties of healthy/damaged cells and their pericellular matrix in an intro model of osteoarthritis progression using a novel approach coupling Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) measurements, computational modelling and optimization algorithms. In addition, changes in cartilage structure, composition and metabolism in an in vitro model of osteoarthritis progression will be investigated.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

Joint injuries are very frequent, especially among young people. Such injuries seldom heal and over time can lead to cartilage degeneration and ultimately osteoarthritis. Although, it is generally assumed that excessive mechanical loading post-injury can cause or accelerate the progression of cartilage degeneration, the precise mechanisms involved in the pathological processes at different structural length scales are still not fully understood. Thus, novel approaches for understanding structure-function relationships from the cell to tissue level in both health and disease are necessary. The overall aim of this research is to investigate the mechanisms of cartilage damage progression at different levels of tissue organization. The novelty of this research lies in the highly interdisciplinary approach of combining an in vitro model of OA progression with the state-of-the-art materials testing devices, computational modeling and sophisticated microscopic, spectroscopic and molecular biology techniques to carefully assess the mechanics, structure, composition and gene expression on cell and tissue levels. The novel data obtained from this research will shed light on the key mechanobiological pathways by which cartilage cells maintain healthy tissue or mount a healing response following tissue injury and excessive loading. This project is conducted as an international collaboration between University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA. This represents a unique opportunity to bring together the complementary skill sets of Dr. Florea, Dr. Korhonen’s group and Prof. Grodzinsky’s group, with their expertise in biomechanics, computational modeling, biochemistry and cartilage biology. The mutually beneficial collaboration between Europe and USA can advance the field of cartilage research with significant potential to provide novel strategies to reduce/prevent cartilage degeneration for patients in Europe and beyond.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

ITA-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO · KUOPIOКоординаторФинландия
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · CambridgeСъединени щати