Hello! My name is Julia Eazer and I am a senior in the IMS program. My goals are to attend to medical after taking a gap year in which I will be working as a medical assistant. I have been working with Dr Delp for over 3 years and its a privilege to have been able to complete an HITM with her as my mentor.
The Effects of Muscular Stretch Training on Vasculature in the Proximal Tibial Metaphysis
Authors: Julia Eazer, Dr. Judy Delp
Student Major: Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences: Clinical Professions
Mentor: Dr. Judy Delp
Mentor’s Department: Biomedical Sciences
Mentor’s College: Medicine
Abstract
Past studies have shown the blood flow to the proximal tibia increases with muscular stretch training in rats models. The results also show a significant change in bone volume between stretched and non stretched legs, indicating a morphological change has occurred within the bone. The change is likely due to vasculature remodeling through the process of angiogenesis. To asses this, a stain that binds to endothelial cells, called lectin, was used on longitudinal sections of the bone. Fluorescent images of lectin and DAPI stains were taken at the proximal metaphysis. Qualitative analysis using a custom made program in Python which analyzed fluorescent regions in the images taken showed a significant increase in vasculature. There was on average an increase in vasculature volume of 65% in stretched tibias compared to nonstretched.
Keywords: vascular, bone, biomedical, cardiovascular