Matthew Fisher, associate professor in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering and principal investigator of the Translational Orthopaedic Research Laboratory, was awarded a 5-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Disease (NIAMS). Fisher’s laboratory focuses on understanding the normal structure and function of soft tissues in the musculoskeletal system to develop new tissue engineering and regenerative medicine solutions. The award specifically supports the lab’s research on anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) function in the growing knee joint.
The project, a competitive continuation of a NIH Research Project Grant (R01), will explore mechanisms by which sex and skeletal growth impact ACL structure, function, injury risk and treatment. Differences in the risk of ACL injury between males and females are noted around early adolescence and persist throughout adolescence but not in childhood or adulthood. Fisher’s laboratory will examine how sex hormones impact ligament fiber bundle size and function of the two major fiber bundles in the ACL: the anteromedial (AM) and posterolateral (PL) bundles. Specifically, the laboratory will look at the effect of puberty onset on long-term ACL bundle size and function. Fisher’s team also plans to study the effect of cyclic hormone levels on ACL bundle size and function and whether or not stabilizing hormone levels reduce bundle changes.
The information gained from this research can also support human clinical trials into injury risk reduction and new potential treatment strategies. Collaborators from NC State University on this project include Lauren Schnabel, professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences, Jorge Piedrahita, director of the Comparative Medicine Institute, and Emily Griffith, associate department head in the Department of Statistics. Additional collaborators include Jeffrey Spang, associate professor at UNC-Chapel Hill Orthopaedics, Alon Conley, professor in Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis and Sandra Shultz, director of the Center for Women’s Health and Wellness at UNC-Greensboro.
This article was written by Kathleen Clardy for The Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering.
For more information on this project proposal, please click here.
Preliminary data for this proposal was collected with support from the UNC Thurston Arthritis Research Center.