Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Effects Of Varus Knee Alignment And Using Toe-Cages On Frontal Plane Knee Biomechanics In Stationary Cycling, Guangping Shen

Masters Theses

Effects of varus knee alignment on the internal knee abduction moment (KAM) in walking has been widely studied. KAM has been shown to be closely associated with the development of medial knee osteoarthritis (OA). Despite the importance of the knee alignment, no studies have explored its effects on knee frontal plane biomechanics during stationary cycling. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of varus knee alignment and using a toe-cage on the knee frontal plane biomechanics during stationary cycling. Eleven participants in each of the varus and neutral groups participated in the study. The participants performed in …

Biodegradable Nano-Hybrid Polymer Composite Networks For Regulating Cellular Behavior, Charles Henley Sprague

Masters Theses

Photo-crosslinkable polymeric biomaterials have emerged in the field of biomedical research to promote tissue regeneration. For example, scaffolds that can be crosslinked and hardened in situ have been known to make suitable implant alternatives. Since injectable and photo-crosslinkable biomaterials offer the advantage of being minimally invasive, they have emerged to compete with autografts, a current highly invasive method to repair diseased tissue. A series of novel photo-crosslinkable, injectable, and biodegradable nano-hybrid polymers consisting of poly(ε-caprolactone fumarate) (PCLF) and polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) has been synthesized in our laboratory via polycondensation. To engineer the material properties of the nano-hybrid networks, varied …

Characterization And Development Of Amyloid-Reactive Peptides As Tracers For Quantitative Molecular Imaging, Emily Brooke Martin

Doctoral Dissertations

Amyloidosis is a degenerative protein misfolding disorder that leads to the extracellular accumulation of amyloid deposits containing protein fibrils, heparan sulfate proteoglycans, glycoproteins and apolipoproteins. To date, at least 27 proteins have been identified as components of pathologic amyloid fibrils. In systemic forms of the disease, amyloid deposits can evade the immune system and expand throughout various tissues. As the deposits grow, tissue architecture is disrupted, leading to organ dysfunction and death.

In the US, there are ~3500 newly diagnosed patients with amyloidosis annually. The deposition of light chains as amyloid (AL amyloidosis) is the most common form of visceral …