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This study aimed at investigating the effects of static and dynamic compression applied on growth plate explants using matched compressive strains. Growth plate explants from 4-week-old swine ulnae were submitted to in vitro static (10% strain) or dynamic (oscillating between 7% and 13% at 0.1 Hz) unconfined compression for 48 h. The total growth plate height, the combined proliferative and hypertrophic thickness and the resulting ratio between these two thicknesses were evaluated. Standard immunohistochemistry was used to analyze the protein expression of key components of the extracellular matrix: aggrecan, type II collagen, type X collagen, and MMP13. In the statically loaded samples, the columnar organization of the cells was preserved but with slight columns deviation from the growth axis. Decreases in all histomorphological parameters were important and a notable loss of aggrecan, type II and type X collagens expressions was denoted. In the dynamically loaded samples, a severe loss of columnar arrangement was observed in the proliferative and hypertrophic zones. However, dynamic compressive loads preserved the proliferative and hypertrophic zones ratio and contributed to the synthesis of aggrecan and type II collagen in the extracellular matrix. The exact response of the growth plate to mechanical stresses along with optimal loading parameters could help improve the current treatment approaches or develop new treatment approaches for the underlying progressive musculoskeletal deformities. ß

The objectives of this study were to extract the intrinsic mechanical properties of the growth plate at four different stages of growth and to compare two different methods of extracting these properties. Porcine distal ulnar growth plate samples were obtained from newborn, 4-, 8-, and 18-week (W) pigs and were tested using stress relaxation tests under unconfined compression. A four-parameter curve fitting procedure was developed to extract mechanical properties using the Transversely Isotropic Biphasic Elastic model(TIBPE) (Cohen et al. in J Biomech Eng Trans Asme 120(4):491-496, 1998) and the Differential Evolution (DE) optimization algorithm (Price et al. Natural computing series, Springer, Germany 2005). Optimization was done on all experimental curves for the first method and on one average experimental curve per developmental stage in the second. The 4-week stage was studied in two subgroups (a) and (b) due to distinct differences in mechanical properties. Intrinsic mechanical properties of the growth plate varied nonlinearly with developmental stage. Both methods showed that transverse and out-of-plane Young's moduli (E (1), E (3)) decrease with developmental stage, whereas transverse permeability (k (1)) increases. The exception is a sharp increase in stiffness and reduction in permeability at the 4W(a) stage, which may be associated with rapid porcine developmental changes at the 3-4 week period. The second method provides a more reliable representation of the average mechanical behavior, whereas the first method allows statistical comparison of optimized mechanical properties. This study characterizes, for the first time, the variation in growth plate mechanical properties for the same animal (porcine) and bone (ulna) model with developmental stage and provides new insight into the progression of musculoskeletal diseases during growth spurts in response to mechanical loading.