Temporomandibular disorders are a group of more than 30 conditions that cause pain and dysfunction in the jaw. So what could a small tissue sample from a rat’s knee have to do with treating them?
A new publication from University of Pittsburgh researchers offers some answers. In "Advanced Tissue Clearing and Three-Dimensional Imaging Approaches to Visualize Neural Innervation in the Rat Knee Joints,” Alejandro Almarza, professor of oral and craniofacial sciences, School of Dental Medicine, and of bioengineering, Swanson School of Engineering, used specialized imaging techniques to map the architecture of nerves inside knee joint tissue. For Almarza, this research lays critical groundwork for visualizing how nerve patterns in densely innervated joints are related to pain, allowing him to better understand disorders of the temporomandibular joint .