Nerve root compression produces chronic pain and altered spinal neuropeptide expression. This study utilized controlled transient loading in a rat model of painful cervical nerve root compression to investigate the dependence of mechanical allodynia on load magnitude. Injury loads (0-110mN) were applied quasistatically using a customized loading device, and load thresholds to produce maintained...

PTH and mechanical loading might act synergistically on bone formation. We tested the in vivo effect of the L-type voltage-sensitive calcium channel (VSCC) blocker, verapamil, on bone formation induced by human PTH-(1-34) (PTH) injection with or without mechanical loading. Adult rats were divided into eight groups: vehicle, verapamil, PTH, or verapamil plus PTH with or without mechanical loadin...

AIM To determine in vivo, the degree of microbial reduction after chemo-mechanical preparation of human root canals containing necrotic pulp tissue when using two endodontic irrigating reagents, sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) or chlorhexidine gel (CHX). METHODOLOGY Thirty-two single rooted teeth with necrotic pulp were divided into two groups. One group (n=16) was irrigated with 2.5% NaOCl, whil...

Regeneration of load-bearing segmental bone defects is a major challenge in trauma and orthopaedic surgery. The ideal bone graft substitute is a biomaterial that provides immediate mechanical stability, while stimulating bone regeneration to completely bridge defects over a short period. Therefore, selective laser melted porous titanium, designed and fine-tuned to tolerate full load-bearing, wa...

Hair bundles are biological oscillators that actively transduce mechanical stimuli into electrical signals in the auditory, vestibular, and lateral-line systems of vertebrates. A bundle's function can be explained in part by its operation near a particular type of bifurcation, a qualitative change in behavior. By operating near different varieties of bifurcation, the bundle responds best to dis...

The damage and fracture of materials are technologically of enormous interest due to their economic and human cost. They cover a wide range of phenomena like e.g. cracking of glass, aging of concrete, the failure of fiber networks in the formation of paper and the breaking of a metal bar subject to an external load. Failure of composite systems is of utmost importance in naval, aeronautics and ...

Sensory nerves emanating from the dorsal root extensively innervate the surfaces of mammalian bone, a privileged location for the regulation of biomechanical signaling. Here, we show that NGF-TrkA signaling in skeletal sensory nerves is an early response to mechanical loading of bone and is required to achieve maximal load-induced bone formation. First, the elimination of TrkA signaling in mice...

OBJECTIVE: Exposure of articular cartilage to interleukin-1 (IL-1) results in increased synthesis of matrix degrading enzymes. Previously mechanical load applied together with IL-1 stimulation was found to reduce aggrecan cleavage by ADAMTS-4 and 5 and MMP-1, -3, -9, and -13 and reduce proteoglycan loss from the extracellular matrix. To further delineate the inhibition mechanism the gene expres...

Kokkonen, Kati, Heidi Vierimaa, Sari Bergström, Virpi Tervonen, Olli Arjamaa, Heikki Ruskoaho, Matti Järvilehto, and Olli Vuolteenaho. Novel salmon cardiac peptide hormone is released from the ventricle by regulated secretory pathway. Am. J. Physiol. Endocrinol. Metab. 278: E285–E292, 2000.—We used the secretion of the novel salmon cardiac peptide (sCP) as a model to examine the mechanisms of v...

Hybrid Stepper Motors (HSM), together with the microstepping driving technique, are widely used in many motion control applications, given their low cost and high reliability. On the other hand, being controlled in an open loop fashion, they cannot achieve high levels of performance, this mainly due to the absence of a load-side position sensor. In this paper, we address the problem of controll...