![\"FiberTracts\"](\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3002\/2018\/11\/FiberTracts.jpg\")
At every level of biological complexity, muscle structure significantly influences muscle function. These properties include the intermediate-scale relationships known as muscle architecture<\/em>: the shape and orientation of a muscle\u2019s fibers with respect to its mechanical line of action. Our understanding of how muscle architecture affects muscle function remains incomplete, however, and our tools for studying these relationships are insufficiently developed. As a result, there are critical gaps in our understanding of how pathologically altered muscle architecture in diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy may impair muscle function and even elevate the risk of future injury.<\/p>\nOur specific aims for this project are:<\/p>\n
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- To validate MRI methods for quantifying muscle architecture in a broad range of states of muscle health and disease, at rest and during contraction<\/li>\n
- To advance the quantitative understanding of the functional impact of muscle architecture in healthy and dystrophic human muscle; and<\/li>\n
- To distribute data and software for MRI-based muscle structure-function analysis<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Collaborators<\/h3>\n
We have an outstanding, multi-institutional team of collaborators:<\/p>\n
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- Vanderbilt University\/Vanderbilt University Medical Center:\u00a0Adam Anderson PhD<\/a>,\u00a0Charles Caskey\u00a0PhD<\/a>, Zhaohua Ding\u00a0PhD<\/a>, Bennett Landman\u00a0PhD<\/a>,\u00a0Mike Miga\u00a0PhD<\/a>, and Jon Soslow MD<\/a><\/li>\n
- Collaborating Sites: Silvia Blemker PhD<\/a> (University of Virginia), Hermien Kan PhD<\/a> (Leiden University Medical Center), Jane Kent PhD<\/a> (University of Massachusetts at Amherst), and Brian Noehren PhD PT<\/a>\u00a0(University of Kentucky)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Funding<\/h3>\n
This project is funded by an R01 award<\/a> from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Representative\u00a0Publications<\/h3>\n
Damon BM, Froeling M, Buck AKW, Oudeman J, Ding Z, Nederveen A, Bush EC, Strijkers GJ. (2017). Skeletal muscle DT-MRI fiber tracking: Rationale, data acquisition and analysis methods, applications, and future directions<\/a>.\u00a0NMR in Biomedicine<\/em>. 30:e3563, doi: 10.1002\/nbm.3563.<\/p>\n
Towse TF, Elder CP, Bush EC, Klockenkemper S, Bullock JT, Dortch RD, Damon BM. (2016). Post-contractile BOLD contrast in skeletal muscle at 7 Tesla reveals inter-individual heterogeneity in the physiological responses to muscle contraction<\/a>.\u00a0NMR in Biomedicine.<\/em>\u00a029:1720-1728.<\/p>\n
- Collaborating Sites: Silvia Blemker PhD<\/a> (University of Virginia), Hermien Kan PhD<\/a> (Leiden University Medical Center), Jane Kent PhD<\/a> (University of Massachusetts at Amherst), and Brian Noehren PhD PT<\/a>\u00a0(University of Kentucky)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Vanderbilt University\/Vanderbilt University Medical Center:\u00a0Adam Anderson PhD<\/a>,\u00a0Charles Caskey\u00a0PhD<\/a>, Zhaohua Ding\u00a0PhD<\/a>, Bennett Landman\u00a0PhD<\/a>,\u00a0Mike Miga\u00a0PhD<\/a>, and Jon Soslow MD<\/a><\/li>\n