ABSTRACT
The solute transport is especially important in avascular or damaged tissues, where it has to provide a sufficient supply of nutrients to cells and modulate biochemical
environment of the cells [1]. Mass transfer can be accelerated by convection induced by cyclic loading of the tissue that has boundary with a fluid reservoir and has the ability to squeeze fluid out of the pores due to deformation. There is experimental evidence that biosynthetic activity of the cells is altered by mechanical stimulation [1, 2, 4, 10], and that the most important stimuli are fluid velocity relative to cells and shear strain [1]. Studies of articular cartilage repair suggest that the activation of protein synthesis can partly be triggered by altered molecular transport due to convection [2, 9]. In support of this idea, insulin-like growth factors (IGF) and dynamic compression applied together showed a synergistic effect on biosynthetic response of chondrocytes [9, 10]. However, it is poorly understood how the binding of macromolecules to extracellular matrix influences their transport induce by loading. The factor of binding seems important because most proteins and signaling molecules have the ability to interact with matrix components [8].
