{
  "abstract": "The adult knee meniscus has a strong vascular gradient: the peripheral red zone is vascularized, whereas the inner white zone is largely avascular and has limited intrinsic healing potential after injury. Although biologic augmentation and scaffold-based strategies are being explored to improve meniscal repair, it remains unclear whether modifying local glucose transport can improve glucose availability at deep white-zone tears. This study uses a one-dimensional reaction-diffusion framework to model normalized glucose concentration from a vascularized red-zone boundary toward a simulated 2.5 mm white-zone tear. Glucose diffusivity values were selected from reported meniscus glucose-diffusion measurements under different compressive strain conditions, and the model compares native diffusivity cases with an augmented sustained-source case representing a hypothetical scaffold- or microchannel-assisted transport scenario. The framework reports threshold-free glucose profiles, mathematical fractional-restoration comparison levels (C/C0 = 0.20, 0.30, 0.40, and 0.50), source-release kinetics, tear-depth sensitivity, initial-condition sensitivity, extended simulation windows, and model-derived diffusivity enhancement estimates. The comparison levels are not validated healing thresholds or clinical targets. Native glucose diffusivity cases remained below C/C0 = 0.30 at a tear located 2.5 mm from the red-zone boundary, even when selected simulations were extended to 24 h. In contrast, an augmented sustained-source example reached C/C0 = 0.20, 0.30, and 0.40 within the 4-h transport window. Initial condition sensitivity showed that the main interpretation remained unchanged when the model was initialized with a reference steady glucose profile rather than a depleted domain. These results do not demonstrate biological healing, but they provide a hypothesis-generating framework for defining glucose transport experiments and planning future ex vivo validation studies.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Orthopaedic Research Laboratory, Rutgers - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School , , ,"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 1,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Tiya Patel"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6s0rgsycay7n7.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3389/fbioe.2026.1880978",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13716718/?tool=EBI",
  "id": "6s0rgsycay7n7",
  "issns": [
    "2296-4185"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13716718",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Original Research"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2746|Knee injuries and reconstruction techniques"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7222002416",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13716718/pdf/?tool=EBI",
  "pmcid": "PMC13716718",
  "pmid": "42959109",
  "published": "2026-10-15",
  "publisher": "Frontiers Media SA",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6s0rgsycay7n7.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-31T00:20:37Z",
      "native_id": "PMC:PMC13716718",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13716718"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-01T00:20:52Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42959109",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42959109"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-01T12:23:56Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13716718",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2026.1880978"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:2746|Knee injuries and reconstruction techniques",
      "subfield": "surgery"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Glucose transport as a design constraint in white-zone meniscus tissue engineering: a reaction-diffusion framework",
  "title_text": "Glucose transport as a design constraint in white-zone meniscus tissue engineering: a reaction-diffusion framework",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-02T12:21:10Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/6s0rgsycay7n7",
  "venue": "Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology",
  "versions": []
}