Three-Dimensional Engineered Bone–Ligament–Bone Constructs for Anterior Cruciate Ligament Replacement

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), a major stabilizer of the knee, is commonly injured. Because of its intrinsic poor healing ability, a torn ACL is usually reconstructed by a graft. We developed a multi-phasic, or bone?ligament?bone, tissue-engineered construct for ACL grafts using bone marrow stromal cells and sheep as a model system. After 6 months in vivo, the constructs increased in cross section and exhibited a well-organized microstructure, native bone integration, a functional enthesis, vascularization, innervation, increased collagen content, and structural alignment. The constructs increased in stiffness to 52% of the tangent modulus and 95% of the geometric stiffness of native ACL. The viscoelastic response of the explants was virtually indistinguishable from that of adult ACL. These results suggest that our constructs after implantation can obtain physiologically relevant structural and functional characteristics comparable to those of adult ACL. They present a viable option for ACL replacement.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98477/1/ten%2Etea%2E2011%2E0231.pd

A Brief Note on Giacometti

Giacometti's work is not comforting. Whether it is seen as driven by abandonment of faith in history, or the surrealist recognition that everything is part of pitiless connection and transmutation, the role of Giacometti's self-understanding in the critical and popular reception of his work is highly significant, and perhaps not sufficiently challenged. Through short discussions of the commentaries on Giacometti's work, by Krauss, Sartre, Sylvester and Danto, and using contrasts with other 20th-century art, it is suggested that the search for the meaning and explanation of the specific creative works in the artist's subjectivity, while very often providing fascinating and invaluable narratives, cannot be taken as an adequate foundation for aesthetic understanding