Development and responses of equine musculo-skeletal connective tissues : a collection of published papers presented in application for the degree of Doctor of Science at Massey University

Abstract

This application for assessment for examination for the Doctor of Science degree (Massey University) consists of a collection of papers published in international peerreviewed scientific journals. The work was conducted over the last 25 years at Utrecht University, The Netherlands and Massey University, New Zealand. Also in the list of publications are papers (#) originally published in my PhD thesis (1983), and peer-reviewed abstracts of selected presentations at international conferences (*). They are included not for assessment, but to provide the reader with an insight into the origins of the work and the direction in which it is continuing. My research focus began to take shape in the 1980s, when I first became interested in the reasons for the site predisposition of infective disease within bone, and in the differences in the responses of bone to mechanical forces. This collection of papers thus focuses on the responses of the musculo-skeletal connective tissues - bone, tendon and cartilage - to various influences. This research area remains important to both equine and human health, since the ways in which connective tissues respond to growth, disease, exercise and lack of exercise largely determine their subsequent structural integrity, and if and when they will be injured during the exertions of athletic training and competition. The work presented here does not include my research in fields less related to the subject of the development and responses of connective tissues.