| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立陽明大學 === 生醫光電工程研究所 === 99 === The main component of synovial fluid (SF) is hyaluronic acid (HA) or hyaluronate. The special three-dimentional network structure of HA gives rise to the unique viscoelastic properties of SF which provides the functions of lubrication, shock absorption, and the buffer of joint in the human body. The concentration and molecular weight of hyaluronic acid in the synovial fluid of patients suffering from arthritis are known to be significantly lower than the corresponding values of healthy population, resulting in a reduction in the viscoelastic modulus of the synovial fluid, and leading to damage in joints, and subsequently patient’s pain and stiffness. Currently, refilling viscosupplement (or artificial synovial fluid) into the joints to recover the viscoelasticity of SF is among one of the safe and effective treatments.
In this research, we used oscillatory optical tweezers to study the viscoelastic modulus of hyaluronic acid in different concentrations and molecular weights. In addition, we also measured the viscoelasticity of synovial fluids of arthritis patients (including Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Gouty Arthritis) to correlate with the degree of inflammation (indicated by white blood cell count).
For hyaluronic acid with different concentrations and molecular weights, we found that higher concentration and larger molecular weight of hyaluronic acid correspond to higher elastic modulus G’ and higher viscous modulus G” . For synovial fluid from arthritis patients, we found that as the degree of inflammation (indicated by white blood cell count) increases, both G’ and G” decrease.
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