Bone Response to Mechanical Loading: The Influence of Genetics

Abstract 

Bone is mechanoresponsive. Mechanical (over)loading stimulates the formation of new bone that can increase bone size and strength. This response depends on both mechanical and biological factors. I will review some of the basic phenomena of bone's response to loading, describe our lab's in vivo approach using axial tibial loading in mice, and present recent data on the influence of genetic background. Our finding that bone's response to loading is strongly heritable (i.e., depends on genetics) supports future studies in genetically diverse mice to identify genes that contribute to this effect.

About the Speaker 

Matthew J. Silva, Ph.D. is the Julia and Walter R. Peterson Orthopaedic Research Professor and Vice Chair for Orthopaedic Research in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, at Washington University in St. Louis. He is Associate Director of the Washington University Musculoskeletal Research Center and an affiliate professor of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science.

Dr. Silva earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, then worked for several years doing orthopaedic implant design and analysis at The Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.  He returned to graduate school in 1990 and worked in the Orthopaedic Biomechanics Lab at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He received his doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and joined the faculty of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Washington University in St. Louis in 1996.

The Silva lab focuses on skeletal mechanobiology – how bones respond to mechanical forces. They use in vivo loading to examine how bones heal after full fracture and stress fracture, and how aging bones respond to increased loading as a means for enhancing bone mass and strength. Their goals are to better understand the mechanical and molecular factors that regulate loading-induced bone formation, and to evaluate clinically relevant bone anabolic and healing strategies. 

Dr. Silva has mentored more than 50 undergraduate students, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows in his lab, several of whom have gone on to faculty positions and independent research programs. He has been an investigator on more than 30 funded research projects, with continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health since 2001. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles in his career. He is editor of the book Skeletal Aging and Osteoporosis: Biomechanics and Mechanobiology (2012). He is a past Treasurer of the Orthopaedic Research Society, and received the ORS Achievement in Mentoring Award in 2019. 

Host: Professor Mariana Kersh