Content:
Low back pain (LBP) is a common, widespread social and economic problem. Degenerative disc disease has been considered as a main risk factor for the LBP. In order to develop safe, effective and cost-efficient treatments, it is important to explore the pathomechanisms of this disease. In vivo animal models have an irreplaceable role in detecting long-term reactions to environmental factors, biology or biomechanical risk factors, and preclinical evaluation of therapeutics. Large animal models, due to their similarity in cellular populations, anatomy and biomechanics, are more closely comparable to the human intervertebral disc than smaller animal models. The major goal of current thesis was characterizing the effect of short and long term immobilization on the magnetic resonance imaging, radiological, histological and biomechanical characteristics of the in vivo ovine lumbar spine joints. To achieve this target, four experimental projects were performed.In the first experimental portion, a three-dimension motion capture system was set up and validated. A reliable method of the spinal kinematic analysis was established. The second experimental portion evaluated the biomechanical aspect of a synthetic biomimetic spine model with a validated spinal biomechanical test system combined with the motion capture system set up in the first study. This established the whole system applicability to the specific goal of examining spinal biomechanics. The third experimental chapter is an in vitro ovine biomechanical study. The purpose of this study was to characterize the effect of loading and soaking conditions on the spinal segment biomechanical property. Results indicated the biomechanics of spinal samples with hydration and dehydration discs differ considerably. Thus, the suitable pretest conditions need to be considered during in vitro spinal biomechanical test. The fourth experimental portion was the in vivo ovine model study. The aim of this chapter was evaluate the effect of the short and long term immobilization on the ovine lumbar spinal joints. The posterior pedicle screw instrumentation was applied on skeletally mature sheep lumbar spine. The immobilized level and adjacent levels spinal joints were evaluated at 0, 6 and 26 weeks. Results demonstrated the both short and long term immobilization can induce spinal joint degeneration on sheep model. This work presents a novel degenerative disc model without the need for annulus violation or chemical treatment
Note:
Dissertation University of New South Wales. Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering 2016
Language:
English
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