Liesbet Geris of the Division of Biomechanics and Engineering Design at the K.U. in Leuven, Belgium, gives a talk about fracture healing.

Location: CWI, room M279

Fracture healing is a complex process involving the actions and interactions of many cells and proteins. Despite the extensive body of literature on bone regeneration, many questions remain on e.g. the regulatory mechanisms and potential treatment strategies of impaired regeneration cases. The presented work aims at addressing these issues by means of mathematical modelling. A mathematical model was developed encompassing key aspects of the bone regeneration process such as intramembranous and endochondral ossification, angiogenesis and the coupling of these processes with mechanical loading.

The results obtained with this model were corroborated both qualitatively and quantitatively by comparison with experimental data for normal fracture healing set-ups. Afterwards, cases of impaired fracture healing were simulated and experimentally testable therapeutic strategies were designed. A first pilot experiment implementing the designed protocol showed promising results. Furthermore, the model was applied to test various hypotheses concerning the nature of the mechanical stimulus influencing the healing process, and the most important cellular processes influenced by mechanical loading. During the presentations examples will be shown of all of the aforementioned model applications.