edited by Hiroshi Wada (Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan)

Table of Contents (39k)
Preface (28k)
Chapter 1: Structural Analysis of the Motor Protein Prestin (1,005k)

A project on “Biomechanics at Micro- and Nanoscale Levels”, the title of this book, was approved by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan in 2003. This 4-year-project was carried out by 14 prominent Japanese researchers and ended in late March 2007. The project consisted of four fields of research, namely, cell mechanics, cell response to mechanical stimulation, tissue engineering, and computational biomechanics.

A series of four books related to this project was published between 2003 and 2007. The present volume is the last book in this series, and summarizes the research results achieved by project members throughout its 4-year duration. This book is essential reading for those interested in understanding current trends of research in the area of biomechanics at micro- and nanoscale levels.

• Cell Mechanics:
  • Structural Analysis of the Motor Protein Prestin (H Wada et al.)
  • Effects of Cytoskeletal Structures on Elastic and Viscoelastic Properties of Cells in Soft Tissues (T Matsumoto et al.)
  • Biomechanical Properties of Collagen Gel Associated with Microvessel Formation in Vitro (K Tanishita et al.)
  • Depth-Dependent Compressive Behaviors of Articular Cartilage and Chondrocytes (T Murakami et al.)
• Cell Response to Mechanical Stimulation:
  • Cytoskeletal Reassembling and Calcium Signaling Responses to Mechanical Perturbation in Osteoblastic Cells (T Adachi et al.)
  • Experimental Estimation of Preexisting Tension in Single Actin Stress Fiber of Vascular Cells (S Deguchi et al.)
  • Biophysical Mechanisms of Tension-Dependent Formation of Stress Fibers from Actin Meshwork (H Hirata et al.)
• Tissue Engineering:
  • Effects of Cyclic Hydrostatic Pressure Loading on Regulation of Chondrocyte Phenotypes (A Oura et al.)
  • Effects of a Shear Flow and Water Filtration on the Cell Layer of a Hybrid Vascular Graft (X He & T Karino)
  • Tissue Reconstructions for Motor Organs with Mechanically Structured Grafts (K Takakuda)
• Computational Biomechanics:
  • Microscopic Analysis of Bone (M Tanaka et al.)
  • Computational Biomechanics of Blood Flow in Cardiovascular Diseases (T Yamaguchi et al.)
  • Microstructural Mechanism of Skeletal Muscle Injury and a New Constitutive Model of Skeletal Muscle (E Tanaka et al.)
  • Mechanical Characteristics of Vascular Cells and Tissues Exposed to Deformation, Freezing, and Shock Waves: Measurements and Theoretical Predictions (H Yamada et al.)