Title
Why does intermittent hydrostatic pressure enhance the mineralization process in fetal cartilage?
Author
Tanck, E.
van Driel, W.D.
Hagen, J.W.
Burger, E.H.
Blankevoort, L.
Huiskes, R.
TNO Bouw
Publication year
1999
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine which factor is the most likely one to have stimulated the mineralization process in the in vitro experiments of Klein-Nulend et al. (Arth. Rheum., 29, 1002-1009, 1986). in which fetal cartilaginous metatarsals were externally loaded with an intermittent hydrostatic pressure. by compressing the gas phase above the culture medium. Analytical calculations excluded the possibility that the tissue was stimulated by changes in dissolved gas concentration, pH or temperature of the culture medium through compression of the gas phase. The organ culture experiments were also mechanically analyzed using a poroelastic finite element (FE) model of a partly mineralized metatarsal with compressible solid and Huid constituents. The results showed that distortional strains occurred in the region where mineralization proceeded. The value of this strain was, however, very sensitive to the value of the intrinsic compressibility modulus of the solid matrix (K s). For realistic values of K, the distortional strain was probably too small (about 21.tstrain) to have stimulated the mineralization. If the distortional strain was not the factor to have enhanced the mineralization process, then the only candidate variable left is the hydrostatic pressure itself. We hypothesize that the pressure may have created the physical environment enhancing the mineralization process. When hydrostatic pressure is applied. the balance of the chemical potential of water across cell membranes may be disturbed, and restored again by diffusion of ions tintil equilibrium is reached again. The diffusion of ions may have contributed to the mineralization process
Subject
Materials
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TNO identifier
329426
Source
Journal of Biomechanics, 32, 153-161
Document type
article