Equine hoof wall: Structure, properties, and bioinspired designs

Lazarus, Benjamin S.; Luu, Rachel K.; Ruiz-Pérez, Samuel; Bezerra, Wendell Bruno Almeida; Becerra-Santamaria, Kevin; Leung, Victor; Durazo, Victor Hugo Lopez; Jasiuk, Iwona; Barbosa, Josiane Dantas Viana; Meyers, Marc A.

doi:10.1016/j.actbio.2022.08.028

Cited by 14 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…[1] One of the most characteristic features of the hoof wall is the hollow reinforced tubules (approximately 200-250 μm in diameter [2] ) that run from the generative tissue at the top of the hoof wall to the base of the hoof capsule which provide stiffness, [3,4] fracture toughness, [2,5,6] and impact resistance. [7,8] The role of the tubules in fracture propagation and crack control has been well studied. It was shown that tubules can redirect cracks away from the living tissue at the interior of the hoof and create tortuous fracture paths within the hoof wall.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It was shown that tubules can redirect cracks away from the living tissue at the interior of the hoof and create tortuous fracture paths within the hoof wall. [2,5,8] Yet, there are still open questions about the configuration of the hoof wall's tubules. For example, the hoof wall contains a well-documented gradient in tubule dimensions with densely packed, smaller, elliptical-shaped tubules near the hoof 's exterior and spaced-out, larger, more circular tubules (although all tubules are elliptical) near the interior (depicted in Figure 1a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[2,5] Bridges traversing the hollow medullary cavity, which is about 40-70 μm in diameter, [2] at the center of the tubules in the hoof wall were first observed by Kasapi and Gosline [11] and later by Huang et al [4] However, the authors offer no hypothesis regarding the role of these features. Lazarus et al [8] identified and quantified tubule bridges, providing a bridge density (with an average of one bridge every 111 μm along the cavity's longitudinal axis) and an average bridge thickness (10.3 μm). The same study also used post-impact fractography to suggest that these bridges play a role in stabilizing the tubule.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Equine Hoof Wall Deformation: Novel Aspects Revealed

et al. 2023

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The equine hoof wall has a unique hierarchical structure that allows it to survive high‐impact scenarios. Previous authors have explored the compressive, viscoelastic, and fracture control properties of the hoof wall and suggested that this complex structure plays a vital role in the hoof's behavior. However, the link between the structure and the behavior of the hoof wall has been made primarily with the use of post‐fracture analysis. Here, periodic microcomputed tomography scans are used to observe the temporal behavior of the hoof's meso and microstructures during compression, fracture, and relaxation. These results shed light on the structural anisotropy of the hoof wall and how its hollow tubules behave when compressed in different directions, at different hydration levels, and in various locations within the hoof wall. The behavior of tubule bridges during compression is also reported for the first time. This study elucidates several fracture phenomena, including the way cracks are deflected at tubule interfaces and tubule bridging, tubule arresting, and fiber bridging. Finally, relaxation tests are used to show how the tubule cavities can regain their shape after compression.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Equine Hoof Wall Deformation: Novel Aspects Revealed

et al. 2023

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“…As the foal becomes more mobile, locomotory forces may stimulate changes in structure. For example, once the foals are able to gallop, expansion at the heels may stimulate tubular cells to develop leading to an increase in tubule density at the quarters to provide greater impact resistance [ 15 ]. The integument depth also increases during this period, with epidermal widening contributing approximately half of the overall increase, suggesting a similar increase in lamellar length.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The structural composition and material properties of a healthy hoof wall, together with intricate design features to reduce stress at the interface between the hoof wall and skeleton allow for such demanding functional capacity. As an anisotropic viscoelastic composite reinforced by multi-directional fibres [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ], the hoof is mechanically stable and has been measured to deform at the heels by up to almost 16 mm when galloping at 12 m/s [ 17 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hoof Matters: Developing an Athletic Thoroughbred Hoof

Hobbs

Curtis²,

Martin

et al. 2022

Animals

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Conformation of the hooves and distal limbs of foals and factors influencing their morphological development have not been reported in detail for the Thoroughbred breed. In this paper we explore morphogenesis of the equine distal limb in Thoroughbred foals with emphasis on adaptations in response to weight bearing early in life that prepare the foal for an athletic career. Novel data from four studies are presented chronologically during key time periods to illustrate specific aspects of distal limb growth and adaptation. Dorsal epidermal thickness increased from 2.84 ± 0.41 mm in utero to 4.04 ± 1.10 mm by 4 months of age. The increase in thickness was accompanied by decreased tubular density, increased inter-tubular material, and an increase in number and size of tubules at the quarters, which provided a malleable hoof capsule to allow for skeletal growth. Between 4–6 months of age, the hoof widens, and higher loading on the medial side (>60%) vs. the lateral side (<40%) may be factors that influence mature asymmetric hoof shape. Shortly after 12 months-of-age, the dorsal hoof wall angle and dorsal parietal angle of the distal phalanx become parallel, thus optimizing the functional capacity of the hoof capsule in the weanling Thoroughbred.

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BioinspiredLLM: Conversational Large Language Model for the Mechanics of Biological and Bio‐Inspired Materials

Luu,

Buehler

2023

Advanced Science

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The study of biological materials and bio‐inspired materials science is well established; however, surprisingly little knowledge is systematically translated to engineering solutions. To accelerate discovery and guide insights, an open‐source autoregressive transformer large language model (LLM), BioinspiredLLM, is reported. The model is finetuned with a corpus of over a thousand peer‐reviewed articles in the field of structural biological and bio‐inspired materials and can be prompted to recall information, assist with research tasks, and function as an engine for creativity. The model has proven that it is able to accurately recall information about biological materials and is further strengthened with enhanced reasoning ability, as well as with Retrieval‐Augmented Generation (RAG) to incorporate new data during generation that can also help to traceback sources, update the knowledge base, and connect knowledge domains. BioinspiredLLM also has shown to develop sound hypotheses regarding biological materials design and remarkably so for materials that have never been explicitly studied before. Lastly, the model shows impressive promise in collaborating with other generative artificial intelligence models in a workflow that can reshape the traditional materials design process. This collaborative generative artificial intelligence method can stimulate and enhance bio‐inspired materials design workflows. Biological materials are at a critical intersection of multiple scientific fields and models like BioinspiredLLM help to connect knowledge domains.

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Equine hoof wall: Structure, properties, and bioinspired designs

Cited by 14 publications

References 53 publications

Equine Hoof Wall Deformation: Novel Aspects Revealed

Equine Hoof Wall Deformation: Novel Aspects Revealed

Hoof Matters: Developing an Athletic Thoroughbred Hoof

BioinspiredLLM: Conversational Large Language Model for the Mechanics of Biological and Bio‐Inspired Materials

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