This $556,160 Project Grant awarded by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (CFDA 93.846) aims to examine the efficacy of a rehabilitation approach called Rehabilitation with Exercise and Psychological Support (REPS) for patients who have undergone ACL reconstruction surgery. The REPS intervention integrates standard exercise rehabilitation with psychological support, including clinician training, patient education videos, and techniques like...
This Project Grant award of $1,197,166 from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), under the Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.846), supports research to evaluate neuromuscular mechanisms that may explain differences in functional outcomes between two anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgical procedures. The overall project objective is to leverage patients enrolled in the BEAR-MOON clinical trial to assess...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), under the Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.846), will provide $139,050 in funding to the University of Utah over a five-year period from July 2024 to June 2029. The purpose of this award is to support the research of Dr. Stephan Bodkin, an assistant professor at the University of Utah, in investigating the influence of anterior cruciate...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), under the Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.846), provides $147,236 to the University of Pittsburgh to conduct research on the mechanical effects of knee bracing and its ability to prevent ligamentous injuries. The project aims to: 1) determine the effects of prophylactic bracing on knee kinematics under external loading conditions for...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), under the Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.865), provides $520,154 to Arcadia University to conduct research on the effects of non-invasive brain stimulation to improve quadriceps muscle function after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. The goal is to determine if neural drive is a critical factor limiting recovery of quadriceps muscle...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), under the Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.846), is focused on developing a localized small molecule delivery system to improve tendon-to-bone integration following anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. The $1,060,925 award to The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania will fund in vitro release studies to test the duration and...
The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) has awarded Collamedix Inc. a $300,000 Project Grant under the Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.846) to establish the feasibility of their "CollaLink" collagen-based scaffold for augmenting primary repair of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) mid-substance tears. The project aims to demonstrate that the CollaLink scaffold, when placed around an ACL tear, can provide a...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) under CFDA 93.846 - Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research, provides $488,782 to conduct research on the use of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) to address quadriceps weakness and atrophy following anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury and reconstruction. The overarching objective is to establish the mechanistic basis for how NMES can mitigate the...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), under the Aging Research program (CFDA 93.866), aims to develop an intraoperative sensor device to comprehensively measure ligament engagement during knee arthroplasty procedures. The total funding amount is $308,927 and the award period is from June 15, 2025 to May 31, 2026. The key objectives are to: 1) Integrate a handheld ligament tensiometer into a custom joint distractor to create an innovative "distraction...
This $1,024,510 National Institutes of Health National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases project grant funds research at the University of California, San Francisco into simultaneous imaging of tissue biochemistry and metabolism associated with biomechanics in patellofemoral joint osteoarthritis. The research will conduct a longitudinal cohort study of 100 individuals with isolated patellofemoral joint osteoarthritis followed over two time points. Simultaneous positron...
IN VIVO ACL MECHANICS AND RISK FACTORS FOR INJURY - ABSTRACT AN ESTIMATED 400,000 ANTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT (ACL) INJURIES OCCUR YEARLY IN THE UNITED STATES. MOST ACL INJURIES ARE NON-CONTACT, OCCURRING DURING RAPID DECELERATION MOVEMENTS SUCH AS JUMPING AND CUTTING. IMPORTANTLY, THE RISK OF EARLY-ONSET OSTEOARTHRITIS (OA) PERSISTS REGARDLESS OF WHETHER ACL RECONSTRUCTION IS PERFORMED. THEREFORE, IDENTIFYING RISK FACTORS FOR NON-CONTACT ACL INJURY IS OF GREAT CLINICAL IMPORTANCE. THE FUNCTION OF THE ACL IS TO RESIST TIBIOFEMORAL MOTION DURING THE INTENSE FORCES ASSOCIATED WITH DYNAMIC ACTIVITY. THEREFORE, MEASURING THE DYNAMIC ELONGATION PATTERNS OF THE ACL FUNCTIONAL BUNDLES WILL PROVIDE IMAGING BIOMARKERS OF ELEVATED TENSION WITHIN THE ACL. AS THE ACL FAILS UNDER TENSION, FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH ELEVATED ACL BUNDLE ELONGATIONS REFLECT INCREASED VULNERABILITY TO INJURY. NON-CONTACT ACL INJURIES ARE 2-6X MORE LIKELY IN FEMALES AS COMPARED TO MALES. PATIENTS WITH PRIOR ACL INJURY ARE UP TO 15X MORE LIKELY TO SUSTAIN INJURY TO THEIR UNINJURED CONTRALATERAL KNEE THAN UNINJURED CONTROLS. FINALLY, WHILE CONTROVERSIAL, SOME STUDIES INDICATE THAT FATIGUE INCREASES INJURY RISK. HOWEVER, THERE REMAINS LIMITED IN VIVO DATA TO DESCRIBE ACL BUNDLE ELONGATIONS DURING RELEVANT DYNAMIC ACTIVITIES (SUCH AS JUMPING AND CUTTING) IN THESE GROUPS. BECAUSE DIFFERENT STUDIES SUGGEST THAT DIFFERENT MOTION PATTERNS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH NON-CONTACT ACL INJURY, THE KINEMATIC RISK FACTORS FOR THIS INJURY REMAIN UNCLEAR. ADDITIONALLY, STUDIES SUGGEST THAT A NUMBER OF CHARACTERISTICS OF FEMORAL, TIBIAL, AND ACL MORPHOLOGY ARE RELATED TO INJURY RISK. HOWEVER, IT REMAINS UNCLEAR HOW THESE KINEMATIC AND MORPHOLOGIC FACTORS INTERACT TO INFLUENCE ACL TENSION DURING RELEVANT DYNAMIC ACTIVITIES. THUS, QUANTIFYING THE INFLUENCE OF THESE FACTORS ON IN VIVO ACL BUNDLE ELONGATIONS IN THESE HIGH RISK GROUPS ADDRESSES A CRITICAL BARRIER TO OUR UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT ELEVATES ACL INJURY RISK. THUS, WE PROPOSE TO UTILIZE A NOVEL IN VIVO MULTIMODAL IMAGING METHODOLOGY DEVELOPED BY OUR LAB TO ASSESS THE IMPACT OF 6DOF KINEMATICS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF KNEE MORPHOLOGY ON IN VIVO ACL BUNDLE ELONGATIONS (DEFINED AS CHANGE IN LENGTH NORMALIZED TO AN UNLOADED REFERENCE LENGTH). THESE RELATIONSHIPS WILL BE ASSESSED DURING JUMPING AND CUTTING ACTIVITIES IN THREE POTENTIALLY HIGH RISK POPULATIONS. SPECIFICALLY, WE WILL INVESTIGATE THESE RELATIONSHIPS AIM 1.) IN BOTH SEXES, AIM 2.) IN THE UNINJURED KNEES OF PATIENTS WITH PRIOR ACL INJURY AND CONTROL KNEES, AND AIM 3.) PRE- AND POST-FATIGUE. RELEVANT BIOLOGICAL VARIABLES INCLUDING SEX, AGE, BMI, RACE, ISOKINETIC MUSCLE STRENGTH, SPORT PARTICIPATION, AND ACTIVITY LEVEL, WILL ALSO BE CONSIDERED AS COVARIATES THAT MAY IMPACT ACL BUNDLE ELONGATIONS. FURTHERMORE, INTERACTIONS BETWEEN COVARIATES WILL BE EXPLORED TO ASSESS DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF ONE COVARIATE ACROSS LEVELS OF ANOTHER. THUS, THE PROPOSED STUDIES WILL HAVE HIGH IMPACT BECAUSE THEY WILL 1.) ADDRESS A FUNDAMENTAL GAP IN KNOWLEDGE REGARDING THE CAUSES OF ACL INJURY 2.) IDENTIFY THOSE WHO ARE AT HIGH RISK FOR INJURY AND 3.) IDENTIFY THOSE WHO ARE BEST TARGETED FOR INTERVENTION STRATEGIES.