1997 Whitaker Distinguished Lecture: Models to solve mysteries in biomechanics at the cellular level; a new view of fiber matrix layers.

Three different fundamental cellular level transport models are presented to explore current or recently solved mysteries in what appear to be three unrelated problem areas: (i) Starling's hypothesis for lymph formation in the microcirculation; (ii) the cellular level transduction and transmission mechanisms for sensing and communicating mechanical strain in bone; and (iii) the growth of cellular level macromolecular leakage spots in the arterial intima and their relation to the formation of subendothelial liposomes. This trilogy of what appear to be unrelated problems is shown to have a common link, the thin layer of specialized matrix that cells produce at the surface of their plasmalemma membranes in part to regulate the water and solute transport that surrounds them. In each case unexpected model predictions have led to new hypotheses and the design of new experiments which have helped explain long-standing fundamental questions in biomechanics.