Hierarchical Multiscale Simulation for Enhancing Adhesion of Bone Cells to Metallic Implants
ross Stewart (Alfred University), Jinghong Fan (Alfred University)
Joint Session: Mechanics of cell sheets, multicellular assemblies and tissues and Mechanics and Physics of Biological Cells
Mon 4:20 - 5:40
Barus-Holley 141
Despite the success of surgical implants such as artificial hip and knee joints, the materials used in these procedures still do not satisfy the demands of a durable functioning joint. A primary cause of failure is the poor biocompatibility of implants with bones, thus an improved understanding of the biological responses of bone cells to the implant material surfaces is highly desirable for the development of new metallic implant materials and for the maximization of the longevity of currently used implant materials. The adhesion force is a driving or resistant force for bone-cell motion and immobilization on the implant; therefore it is the key variable to find the mechanisms of cell-implant interaction and to link/guide experiment and theoretical development. In turn, its determination in different conditions is essential. Experimental measurement is difficult to determine adhesion force for a portion of the cell/implant and develop a database. This makes the methodology for simulation-determined adhesion force an important part for enhancing the adhesion of bone cells to metallic implants. The methodology to determine the cell-implant adhesion force by computational simulation consists of two parts: Part 1, investigating the effects of composition and surface energy at the nanoscale through the calculation of the integrin response between the cell membrane and the ECM/adsorbed protein layer via steered molecular dynamics (SMD); Part 2, investigating other effects such as surface roughness at the microscale. The result of Part 1 is the fundamental building block for the investigation of complicated design factors in Part 2. In fact, the resulting force-displacement, P(0)-(0), curve at different integrin lengths, 0, obtained from Part 1 will be transferred to Part 2 as its base of quantitative analysis for adhesion force at any part of the cell at large scales, thus this method is called hierarchical multiscale simulation.