Description du projet
Comprendre les mécanismes d’évolution des lésions du cartilage vers l’ostéoarthrose
L’ostéoarthrose touche des millions de personnes et les lésions articulaires survenant à un jeune âge entraînent souvent une dégradation du cartilage à long terme. La recherche actuelle part du principe qu’une charge mécanique anormale contribue à la dégénérescence du cartilage après une blessure. Il est toutefois essentiel de bien comprendre les mécanismes mécanobiologiques dans des conditions normales et pathologiques pour mettre au point un traitement. Le projet INpaCT, financé par le programme Actions Marie Skłodowska-Curie, étudiera les mécanismes sous-jacents dans un modèle in vitro de progression de l’ostéoarthrose. Le projet se concentrera sur les propriétés poro-viscoélastiques des cellules et de la matrice péricellulaire au cours de la progression de l’ostéoarthrose a l’aide de nouvelles mesures de microscopie à force atomique combinées à la modélisation informatique et aux algorithmes d’optimisation. L’élucidation des acteurs clés des lésions du cartilage permettra de mieux comprendre les mécanismes de la maladie et d’envisager des stratégies de réparation.
Objectif
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.
Champ scientifique
Mots‑clés
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinateur
70211 KUOPIO
Finlande