Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Mechanical Characterization of Bone: State of the Art in Experimental Approaches—What Types of Experiments Do People Do and How Does One Interpret the Results?

  • Biomechanics (G Niebur and J Wallace, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Osteoporosis Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

The mechanical integrity of bone is determined by the direct measurement of bone mechanical properties. This article presents an overview of the current, most common, and new and upcoming experimental approaches for the mechanical characterization of bone. The key outcome variables of mechanical testing, as well as interpretations of the results in the context of bone structure and biology are also discussed.

Recent Findings

Quasi-static tests are the most commonly used for determining the resistance to structural failure by a single load at the organ (whole bone) level. The resistance to crack initiation or growth by fracture toughness testing and fatigue loading offers additional and more direct characterization of tissue material properties. Non-traditional indentation techniques and in situ testing are being increasingly used to probe the material properties of bone ultrastructure.

Summary

Destructive ex vivo testing or clinical surrogate measures are considered to be the gold standard for estimating fracture risk. The type of mechanical test used for a particular investigation depends on the length scale of interest, where the outcome variables are influenced by the interrelationship between bone structure and composition. Advancement in the sensitivity of mechanical characterization techniques to detect changes in bone at the levels subjected to modifications by aging, disease, and/or pharmaceutical treatment is required. As such, a number of techniques are now available to aid our understanding of the factors that contribute to fracture risk.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance

  1. Osterhoff G, Morgan EF, Shefelbine SJ, Karim L, McNamara LM, Augat P. Bone mechanical properties and changes with osteoporosis. Injury. 2016;47:S11–20.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Donnelly E. Methods for assessing bone quality: a review. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2011;469(8):2128–38.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Hernandez CJ, Keaveny TM. A biomechanical perspective on bone quality. Bone. 2006;39(6):1173–81.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Cummings SR, Bates D, Black DM. Clinical use of bone densitometry. JAMA. 2002;288(15):1889–97.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Ammann P, Rizzoli R. Bone strength and its determinants. Osteoporos Int. 2003;14(3):13–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Hunt HB, Donnelly E. Bone quality assessment techniques: geometric, compositional, and mechanical characterization from macroscale to nanoscale. Clin Rev Bone Miner Metab. 2016;14(3):133–49.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Sibai T, Morgan EF, Einhorn TA. Anabolic agents and bone quality. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2011;469(8):2215–24.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Yamaguchi T, Sugimoto T. Bone metabolism and fracture risk in type 2 diabetes mellitus [review]. Endocr J. 2011;58(8):613–24.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Voide R, van Lenthe G, Müller R. Bone morphometry strongly predicts cortical bone stiffness and strength, but not toughness, in inbred mouse models of high and low bone mass. J Bone Miner Res. 2008;23(8):1194–203.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Morgan S, Poundarik AA, Vashishth D. Do non-collagenous proteins affect skeletal mechanical properties? Calcif Tissue Int. 2015;97(3):281–91.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Fajardo RJ, Karim L, Calley VI, Bouxsein ML. A review of rodent models of type 2 diabetic skeletal fragility. J Bone Miner Res. 2014;29(5):1025–40.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Cole JH, van der Meulen MCH. Whole bone mechanics and bone quality. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2011;469(8):2139–49.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. van der Meulen MC, Jepsen KJ, Mikić B. Understanding bone strength: size isn’t everything. Bone. 2001;29(2):101–4.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Hernandez CJ, Tang SY, Baumbach BM, Hwu PB, Sakkee A, van der Ham F, et al. Trabecular microfracture and the influence of pyridinium and non-enzymatic glycation-mediated collagen cross-links. Bone. 2005;37(6):825–32.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Nair AK, Gautieri A, Chang S-W, Buehler MJ. Molecular mechanics of mineralized collagen fibrils in bone. Nat Commun. 2013;4:1724.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Poundarik A, Diab T. Dilatational band formation in bone. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2012;109(47):19178–83.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Hansma PK, Fantner GE, Kindt JH, Thurner PJ, Schitter G, Turner PJ, et al. Sacrificial bonds in the interfibrillar matrix of bone. J Musculoskelet Neuronal Interact. 2005;5(4):313–5.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Fyhrie DP, Christiansen BA. Bone material properties and skeletal fragility. Calcif Tissue Int. 2015;97(3):213–28.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Fan Z, Swadener JG, Rho JY, Roy ME, Pharr GM. Anisotropic properties of human tibial cortical bone as measured by nanoindentation. J Orthop Res. 2002;20(4):806–10.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Currey JD. The structure and mechanics of bone. J Mater Sci. 2012;47(1):41–54.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Turner C, Burr D. Basic biomechanical measurements of bone: a tutorial. Bone. 1993;14(4):595–608.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Goodyear SR, Aspden RM. Mechanical properties of bone ex vivo. In: Helfrich MH, Ralston SH, editors. Bone research protocols. Totowa: Humana Press; 2012. p. 555–71.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  23. Jepsen KJ, Silva MJ, Vashishth D, Guo XE, van der Meulen MC. Establishing biomechanical mechanisms in mouse models: practical guidelines for systematically evaluating phenotypic changes in the diaphyses of long bones. J Bone Miner Res. 2015;30(6):951–66.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  24. Turner CH, Burr DB. Experimental techniques for bone mechanics. In: Cowin SC, editor. Bone Mechanics handbook, vol. 2; 2001. p. 7–1.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Sharir A, Barak MM, Shahar R. Whole bone mechanics and mechanical testing. Vet J. 2008;177(1):8–17.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Brodt MD, Ellis CB, Silva MJ. Growing C57Bl/6 mice increase whole bone mechanical properties by increasing geometric and material properties. J Bone Miner Res. 1999;14(12):2159–66.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Jepsen KJ, Hu B, Tommasini SM, Courtland H-W, Price C, Terranova CJ, et al. Genetic randomization reveals functional relationships among morphologic and tissue-quality traits that contribute to bone strength and fragility. Mamm Genome. 2007;18(6–7):492–507.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  28. Wallace JM, Golcuk K, Morris MD, Kohn DH. Inbred strain-specific effects of exercise in wild type and Biglycan deficient mice. Ann Biomed Eng. 2010;38(4):1607–17.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. • Guss JD, Horsfield MW, Fontenele FF, Sandoval TN, Luna M, Apoorva F, et al. Alterations to the gut microbiome impair bone strength and tissue material properties. J Bone Miner Res. 2017;32(6):1343–53. The results of this study suggests that tissue material properties may also be impaired and contribute to fracture risk in patients with conditions associated with an altered microbiome.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Sinder BP, Salemi JD, Ominsky MS, Caird MS, Marini JC, Kozloff KM. Rapidly growing Brtl/+ mouse model of osteogenesis imperfecta improves bone mass and strength with sclerostin antibody treatment. Bone. 2015;71:115–23.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Vashishth D. Small animal bone biomechanics. Bone. 2008;43(5):794–7.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  32. Berman AG, Wallace JM, Bart ZR, Allen MR. Raloxifene reduces skeletal fractures in an animal model of osteogenesis imperfecta. Matrix Biol. 2016;52–54:19–28.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Bi X, Grafe I, Ding H, Flores R, Munivez E, Jiang MM, et al. Correlations between bone mechanical properties and bone composition parameters in mouse models of dominant and recessive osteogenesis imperfecta and the response to anti-TGF-β treatment. J Bone Miner Res. 2017;32(2):347–59.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Grafe I, Alexander S, Yang T, Lietman C, Homan EP, Munivez E, et al. Sclerostin antibody treatment improves the bone phenotype of Crtap−/− mice, a model of recessive osteogenesis imperfecta. J Bone Miner Res. 2016;31(5):1030–40.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Lambert J, Lamothe JM, Zernicke RF, Auer RN, Reimer RA. Dietary restriction does not adversely affect bone geometry and mechanics in rapidly growing male Wistar rats. Pediatr Res. 2005;57(2):227–31.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Oftadeh R, Perez-Viloria M, Villa-Camacho JC, Vaziri A, Biomechanics NA. Mechanobiology of trabecular bone: a review. J Biomech Eng. 2015;137(1):108021–1080215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Rho JY, Kuhn-Spearing L, Zioupos P. Mechanical properties and the hierarchical structure of bone. Med Eng Phys. 1998;20(2):92–102.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  38. Jamal SA, West SL, Miller PD. Fracture risk assessment in patients with chronic kidney disease. Osteoporos Int. 2012;23(4):1191–8.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. KE E LL, BC T, et al. Renal function and risk of hip and vertebral fractures in older women. Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(2):133–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Oksztulska-Kolanek E, Znorko B, Michałowska M, Pawlak K. The biomechanical testing for the assessment of bone quality in an experimental model of chronic kidney disease. Nephron. 2016;132(1):51–8.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  41. Newman CL, Chen NX, Smith E, Smith M, Brown D, Moe SM, et al. Compromised vertebral structural and mechanical properties associated with progressive kidney disease and the effects of traditional pharmacological interventions. Bone. 2015;77:50–6.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Ritchie R, Koester K, Ionova S, Yao W. Measurement of the toughness of bone: a tutorial with special reference to small animal studies. Bone. 2008;43(5):798–812.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  43. Vashishth D. Rising crack-growth-resistance behavior in cortical bone: implications for toughness measurements. J Biomech. 2004;37(6):943–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. • Bailey S, Karsenty G, Gundberg C, Vashishth D. Osteocalcin and osteopontin influence bone morphology and mechanical properties. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2017;1409(1):79–6. This study demonstrated that bone strength is maintained in the absence of osteocalcin and osteopontin due to morphological adaptation.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Poundarik A, Diab T, Sroga G, Ural A, Boskey A, Gundberg C, et al. Dilatational band formation in bone. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2012;109(47):19178–83.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Reinwald S, Peterson RG, Allen MR, Burr DB. Skeletal changes associated with the onset of type 2 diabetes in the ZDF and ZDSD rodent models. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2009;296(4):E765–74.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  47. Creecy A, Uppuganti S, Merkel AR, O’Neal D, Makowski AJ, Granke M, et al. Changes in the fracture resistance of bone with the progression of type 2 diabetes in the ZDSD rat. Calcif Tissue Int. 2016;99(3):289–301.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  48. Mirzaali MJ, Schwiedrzik JJ, Thaiwichai S, Best JP, Michler J, Zysset PK, et al. Mechanical properties of cortical bone and their relationships with age, gender, composition and microindentation properties in the elderly. Bone. 2016;93:196–211.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  49. Katsamenis OL, Jenkins T, Thurner PJ. Toughness and damage susceptibility in human cortical bone is proportional to mechanical inhomogeneity at the osteonal-level. Bone. 2015;76:158–68.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Granke M, Makowski AJ, Uppuganti S, Nyman JS. Prevalent role of porosity and osteonal area over mineralization heterogeneity in the fracture toughness of human cortical bone. J Biomech. 2016;49(13):2748–55.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  51. • Hunckler MD, Chu ED, Baumann AP, Curtis TE, Ravosa MJ, Allen MR, et al. The fracture toughness of small animal cortical bone measured using arc-shaped tension specimens: effects of bisphosphonate and deproteinization treatments. Bone. 2017;105:67–74. In this study, arc-shaped tension specimens were created as a novel technique for measuring cortical bone fracture toughness at multiple locations in small animals.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  52. Silva MJ, Touhey DC. Bone formation after damaging in vivo fatigue loading results in recovery of whole-bone monotonic strength and increased fatigue life. J Orthop Res. 2007;25(2):252–61.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  53. George WT, Vashishth D. Damage mechanisms and failure modes of cortical bone under components of physiological loading. J Orthop Res. 2005;23(5):1047–53.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  54. Vashishth D, Tanner KE, Bonfield W. Fatigue of cortical bone under combined axial-torsional loading. J Orthop Res. 2001;19(3):414–20.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  55. George W, Vashishth D. Susceptibility of aging human bone to mixed-mode fracture increases bone fragility. Bone. 2006;38(1):105–11.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  56. • Bajaj D, Geissler JR, Allen MR, Burr DB, Fritton JC. The resistance of cortical bone tissue to failure under cyclic loading is reduced with alendronate. Bone. 2014;64:57–64. This study reports that cyclic mechanical properties of cortical bone are reduced due to alterations of bone structure with bisphonate treatment.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  57. • Torres AM, Matheny JB, Keaveny TM, Taylor D, Rimnac CM, Hernandez CJ. Material heterogeneity in cancellous bone promotes deformation recovery after mechanical failure. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2016;113(11):2892–7. This article reports that stress concentrations at the strut surfaces of cancellous bone are a result of reduced accumulation of advanced glycation end-products.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  58. Akkus O, Rimnac CM. Cortical bone tissue resists fatigue fracture by deceleration and arrest of microcrack growth. J Biomech. 2001;34(6):757–64.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  59. Vashishth D, Tanner KE, Behiri JC, Bonfield W. Failure of osteons under differently applied loads. Trans Orthop Res Soc. 1994;19:429.

    Google Scholar 

  60. Zysset PK. Indentation of bone tissue: a short review. Osteoporos Int. 2009;20(6):1049–55.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  61. Nyman JS, Granke M, Singleton RC, Pharr GM. Tissue-level mechanical properties of bone contributing to fracture risk. Curr Osteoporos Rep. 2016;14(4):138–50.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  62. Shuman DJ, Costa ALM, Andrade MS. Calculating the elastic modulus from nanoindentation and microindentation reload curves. Mater Charact. 2007;58(4):380–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  63. Wolfram U, Schwiedrzik J. Post-yield and failure properties of cortical bone. BoneKEy Reports. 2016;5:829.

  64. Tang SY, Zeenath U, Vashishth D. Effects of non-enzymatic glycation on cancellous bone fragility. Bone. 2007;40(4):1144–51.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  65. Tang S, Allen M, Phipps R, Burr D, Vashishth D. Changes in non-enzymatic glycation and its association with altered mechanical properties following 1-year treatment with risedronate or alendronate. Osteoporos Int. 2009;20(6):887–94.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  66. Ascenzi M-G, Di Comite M, Mitov P, Michael Kabo J. Hysteretic pinching of human secondary osteons subjected to torsion. J Biomech. 2007 Jan;40(12):2619–27.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  67. Guo XE, He MY, Goldstein SA. Understanding cement line interface in bone tissue: a linear fracture mechanics approach. ASME-Publications-BED. 1995;29:303.

    Google Scholar 

  68. Hansma P, Turner P, Drake B, Yurtsev E, Proctor A, Mathews P, et al. The bone diagnostic instrument II: indentation distance increase. Rev Sci Instrum. 2008;79(6):64303.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  69. Allen MR, McNerny EMB, Organ JM, Wallace JM. True gold or pyrite: a review of reference point indentation for assessing bone mechanical properties in vivo. J Bone Miner Res. 2015;30(9):1539–50.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  70. Jepsen KJ, Schlecht SH. Biomechanical mechanisms: resolving the apparent conundrum of why individuals with type II diabetes show increased fracture incidence despite having normal BMD. J Bone Miner Res. 2014;29(4):784–6.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  71. Furst JR, Bandeira LC, Fan W-W, Agarwal S, Nishiyama KK, McMahon DJ, et al. Advanced glycation endproducts and bone material strength in type 2 diabetes. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2016;101(6):2502–10.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  72. Malgo F, Hamdy NAT, Papapoulos SE, Appelman-Dijkstra NM. Bone material strength index as measured by impact microindentation is low in patients with fractures irrespective of fracture site. Osteoporos Int. 2017;28(8):2433–7.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  73. Gallant MA, Brown DM, Organ JM, Allen MR, Burr DB. Reference-point indentation correlates with bone toughness assessed using whole-bone traditional mechanical testing. Bone. 2013;53(1):301–5.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  74. Carriero A, Bruse JL, Oldknow KJ, Millán JL, Farquharson C, Shefelbine SJ. Reference point indentation is not indicative of whole mouse bone measures of stress intensity fracture toughness. Bone. 2014;69:174–9.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  75. Krege JB, Aref MW, McNerny E, Wallace JM, Organ JM, Allen MR. Reference point indentation is insufficient for detecting alterations in traditional mechanical properties of bone under common experimental conditions. Bone. 2016;87:97–101.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  76. Boskey AL, Robey PG. The composition of bone. Prim Metab Bone Dis Disord Miner Metab. 8th ed. 2013;49–58.

  77. Zysset PK, Edward Guo X, Edward Hoffler C, Moore KE, Goldstein SA. Elastic modulus and hardness of cortical and trabecular bone lamellae measured by nanoindentation in the human femur. J Biomech. 1999;32(10):1005–12.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  78. Casanova M, Balmelli A, Carnelli D, Courty D, Schneider P, Müller R. Nanoindentation analysis of the micromechanical anisotropy in mouse cortical bone. R Soc Open Sci. 2017;4(2):160971.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  79. Hengsberger S, Kulik A, Zysset PK. A combined atomic force microscopy and nanoindentation technique to investigate the elastic properties of bone structural units. Eur Cells Mater. 2001;1:12–7.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  80. Oliver WC, Pharr GM. An improved technique for determining hardness and elastic modulus using load and displacement sensing indentation experiments. J Mater Res. 1992;7(6):1564–83.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  81. Wang C, Wang Y, Meng H, Gou W, Yuan X, Xu X, et al. Microstructure and Nanomechanical properties of single trabecular bone in different regions of osteonecrosis of the femoral head. J Nanosci Nanotechnol. 16:2264–9.

  82. Aruwajoye OO, Aswath PB, Kim HKW. Material properties of bone in the femoral head treated with ibandronate and BMP-2 following ischemic osteonecrosis. J Orthop Res. 2017;35(7):1453–60.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  83. Islam A, Neil Dong X, Wang X. Mechanistic modeling of a nanoscratch test for determination of in situ toughness of bone. J Mech Behav Biomed Mater. 2012;5(1):156–64.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  84. Kataruka A, Mendu K, Okeoghene O, Puthuvelil J, Akono AT. Microscopic assessment of bone toughness using scratch tests. Bone Reports. 2017;6:17–25.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  85. Wang X, Xu H, Huang Y, Gu S, Jiang JX. Coupling effect of water and proteoglycans on the in situ toughness of bone. J Bone Miner Res. 2016;31(5):1026–9.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  86. Zimmermann EA, Gludovatz B, Schaible E, Busse B, Ritchie RO. Fracture resistance of human cortical bone across multiple length-scales at physiological strain rates. Biomaterials. 2014;35(21):5472–81.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  87. Gupta HS, Seto J, Wagermaier W, Zaslansky P, Boesecke P, Fratzl P. Cooperative deformation of mineral and collagen in bone at the nanoscale. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006;103(47):17741–6.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  88. Rudolf C, Boesl B, Agarwal A. In situ mechanical testing techniques for real-time materials deformation characterization. JOM. 2016;68(1):136–42.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  89. Gupta HS, Krauss S, Kerschnitzki M, Karunaratne A, Dunlop JWC, Barber AH, et al. Intrafibrillar plasticity through mineral/collagen sliding is the dominant mechanism for the extreme toughness of antler bone. J Mech Behav Biomed Mater. 2013;28:366–82.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  90. Zimmermann EA, Schaible E, Gludovatz B, Schmidt FN, Riedel C, Krause M, et al. Intrinsic mechanical behavior of femoral cortical bone in young, osteoporotic and bisphosphonate-treated individuals in low- and high energy fracture conditions. Sci Rep. 2016;6:21072.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  91. Samuel J, Park J-S, Almer J, Wang X. Effect of water on nanomechanics of bone is different between tension and compression. J Mech Behav Biomed Mater. 2016;57:128–38.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health AR49635 and AG20618 and the National Science Foundation CMMI 1363526.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180, USA

    Stacyann Bailey & Deepak Vashishth

Authors
  1. Stacyann Bailey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Deepak Vashishth
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Deepak Vashishth.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Biomechanics

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bailey, S., Vashishth, D. Mechanical Characterization of Bone: State of the Art in Experimental Approaches—What Types of Experiments Do People Do and How Does One Interpret the Results?. Curr Osteoporos Rep 16, 423–433 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11914-018-0454-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11914-018-0454-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation