Resources

Bone & Joint Center Labs

The Bone and Joint Center research laboratories occupy approximately 16,000 square feet of the Wayne State University Integrative Biosciences (IBio) Center.  The IBio Center is a 200,000 square foot multi-disciplinary research facility conveniently located in Detroit’s Midtown neighborhood, midway between the Henry Ford Health Systems main campus and Wayne State University.  The IBio Center is occupied by researchers from both Henry Ford Health Systems and Wayne State University.  There are fully equipped biomechanics, biochemistry, cell culture, anatomy/histology, microscopy, dissection, digital analysis, machine shop, motion analysis, and conference room facilities, along with approximately 2,800 square feet of office space.

Cell and Molecular Biology Lab

The cell and molecular biology laboratories are fully equipped for a wide range of molecular and biochemical investigations at the nucleic acid, protein, cell and whole animal levels. The facilities include dedicated rooms for cell culture and liquid nitrogen storage, tissue sample processing and histology, confocal microscopy.  Particularly useful is a walk-in -20 freezer for the long-term storage of samples.  Major equipment includes a LiCor Odyssey CLx imager for immunoblot analysis, gel-doc DNA imaging systems, a NanoDrop spectrophotometer and plate reader, thermal cyclers for conventional and quantitative PCR.  These resources are in addition to the full range of smaller lab equipment that are too numerous to list.

Anatomy & Histology Lab

A complete hard tissue histomorphometry facility is maintained.  Facilities are in place for processing and embedding undecalcified histologic specimens, including a complete EXAKT cutting/grinding system, a Reichert Jung Polycut and Ultra Miller, a SouthBay slow speed diamond saw, and Leica 1600 high speed diamond saw.  For soft and decalcified tissue histology, we have a Shandon tissue processor, Tes Medrite embedding center, and LKB 2218 Historange microtome.  Complete facilities are in place for standard staining and immunohistochemistry.  For materials characterization, we have an HP cabinet Faxitron x-ray system, Fisher Scientific vacuum oven, and Thermolyne Type 6000 furnace.  Denford CNC milling equipment and a Denford CNC lathe is maintained in the laboratory for the fabrication of materials testing specimens.  Extensive -20°C and -90°C freezer space is maintained for storage of specimens.

Microscopy includes a Nikon Diaphot microscope, Nikon Microphot-SA, Nikon Optiphot microscope with Evolution Media Cybernetics color digital camera and Prior Proscan motorized stage for automatic image montaging, equipped with fluorescence and plane polarized light imaging capabilities.  Offsite, we have access to a Nikon Eclipse 50i Pol microscope, with digital imaging, fluorescent capabilities, and circular polarized microscopy.

Biomechanics

The biomechanics laboratory is well equipped for experimental and computational biomechanics research.  Major equipment includes Instron model 8501 servo-hydraulic uniaxial materials testing system and Instron Biaxial testing system (model 8501M) for axial and torsional loading, each equipped with a range of load cells, LVDTs, extensometers, specimen grips and computer interface for test control and data collection. 

Equipment in the biomechanics laboratory include an Enduratec ELF 3200 magnetically-driven test machine with an extended capacity of 400 N load to perform mid-scale experiments that require precision and high frequency control as well as high loads. Also available in the Biomechanics laboratory is a Biosyntech A.400 system with a capacity of 100 N load, custom made to be combined with an incubator to perform mechanical testing of nondevitalized or engineered cartilage and bone tissue.

Micro CT Lab

The micro CT lab was established in 1992, and received major upgrades in 2003 and 2015.  The current system uses a Kevex 16-watt x-ray source with a 9-micron focal spot, a state-of-the-art 1900x1516-pixel Varian PaxScan 2520DX flat panel digital x-ray detector with 127-micron pitch, and a Newport precision rotational stage.  Acquired projections are geometrically aligned using third-order B-spline interpolation and filtered using a SINC function terminated at the Nyquist frequency of the detector panel.  A wide range of custom fixtures and accessories including mechanical loaders are available for use with the microcomputed tomography system.  64-bit software has been written for digital volume correlation on large memory computational servers.  Additional software, also written in-house, is available for processing the micro-CT images for a variety of applications including segmentation, 3D stereology, linear and nonlinear finite element structural analysis, fluid flow analysis and 3D visualization of results.

Motion Analysis Lab

The motion analysis laboratory includes a biplane x-ray system which is capable of acquiring biplane radiographic images at up to 1000 frames per second.  It consists of two independent systems, each with a 100 kW pulsed x-ray generator (EMD Technologies CPX 3100CV), 16-inch image intensifier (Shimadzu model AI5765HVP), and high‑speed digital camera (Vision Research Phantom 9.1) mounted on a moveable, adjustable‑height gantry.  This system can be configured to provide biplane images of any joint, in an imaging area large enough to walk or run through on either the floor surface or a treadmill.  The digital cameras generate gray‑scale (12‑bit, 4096 levels of gray) images at 1000 frames per second with a resolution of 1632 x 1200 pixels.  The motion analysis laboratory also houses a state-of-the-art ultrasound imaging system (Siemens ACUSON S3000) which offers high-resolution 3D imaging and fusion of CT or MRI 3D data volumes with real-time ultrasound.  In addition, the system includes a full suite of transducers and proprietary software for shear wave elastography capabilities.   The laboratory also has a commercially available multi-joint system strength dynamometer (Biodex). 

Extensive commercial software tools (e.g. MATLAB, ImageJ, OpenInventor, Mimics) as well as many in-house software tools written by our staff programmer are available for computational/analytical analysis, kinematic/kinetic analysis of movement, 2D and 3D image processing and display, visualization of 3D movement data, and the development and analysis of dynamic musculoskeletal models.

Bone and Mineral Lab

The bone and mineral research laboratory (BMRL) has been in existence for over 50 years and serves both clinical and basic research and clinical practice at the Henry Ford Health System.  Historically speaking, this is the lab where Dr. Harold Frost first demonstrated the tetracycline based bone remodeling process in human bone biopsies that forms the fundamental basis for the current therapeutic rationale for osteoporosis.  The BMRL is equipped with Nikon microscope attached with Optronics DEI-750 3 chip camera and Bioquant Image Analysis system; Reichert Polycut microtome with tungsten carbide blades and Ultramiller attachments; and low-speed metallurgical saw.  The bone histology division performs bone histomorphometry both for clinical and animal research and for clinical practice purposes.  The biochemistry section routinely performs the following assays: PTH and 25-hydroxyvitamin D on DiaSorin Liaison platform, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D by RIA, and bone specific alkaline phosphatase and urine NTX by ELISA.  The biochemistry section is also fully capable of performing other assays related to bone turnover (serum CTX, P1NP, Osteocalcin, etc) using commercially available kits.