Abstract
The purpose of this Chapter is to present a detailed description of methods for performing bone Micro-Computed Tomography (microCT) scanning and analysis. MicroCT is an x-ray imaging method capable of visualizing bone at the micro-structural scale, that is, 1-100 µm resolution. MicroCT is the gold-standard method for assessment of 3D bone morphology in studies of small animals. As applied to the small bones of mice or rats, microCT can efficiently and accurately assess bone structure (e.g., cortical bone area [Ct.Ar]) and micro-structure (e.g., trabecular bone volume fraction [Tb.BV/TV]). The particular application described herein is for post mortem mouse femur specimens. The material presented should be generally applicable to many commercially available laboratory microCT systems, although some details are specific to the system used in our lab (Scanco mCT 40; SCANCO Medical AG, Bruttisellen, Switzerland).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bouxsein ML, Boyd SK, Christiansen BA, Guldberg RE, Jepsen KJ, Muller R (2010) Guidelines for assessment of bone microstructure in rodents using micro-computed tomography. J Bone Miner Res 25(7):1468–1486. https://doi.org/10.1002/jbmr.141
Alexander JM, Bab I, Fish S, Muller R, Uchiyama T, Gronowicz G, Nahounou M, Zhao Q, White DW, Chorev M, Gazit D, Rosenblatt M (2001) Human parathyroid hormone 1-34 reverses bone loss in ovariectomized mice. J Bone Miner Res 16(9):1665–1673. https://doi.org/10.1359/jbmr.2001.16.9.1665
Bonnet N, Laroche N, Vico L, Dolleans E, Courteix D, Benhamou CL (2009) Assessment of trabecular bone microarchitecture by two different x-ray microcomputed tomographs: a comparative study of the rat distal tibia using Skyscan and Scanco devices. Med Phys 36(4):1286–1297. https://doi.org/10.1118/1.3096605
Christiansen BA (2016) Effect of micro-computed tomography voxel size and segmentation method on trabecular bone microstructure measures in mice. Bone Rep 5:136–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bonr.2016.05.006
Nazarian A, Snyder BD, Zurakowski D, Muller R (2008) Quantitative micro-computed tomography: a non-invasive method to assess equivalent bone mineral density. Bone 43(2):302–311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bone.2008.04.009
Hildebrand T, Ruegsegger P (1997) A new method for the model-independent assessment of thickness in three-dimensional images. J Microsc 185(1):67–75. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2818.1997.1340694.x
Hildebrand T, Laib A, Muller R, Dequeker J, Ruegsegger P (1999) Direct three-dimensional morphometric analysis of human cancellous bone: microstructural data from spine, femur, iliac crest, and calcaneus. J Bone Miner Res 14(7):1167–1174. https://doi.org/10.1359/jbmr.1999.14.7.1167
Acknowledgments
Washington University Musculoskeletal Research Center (NIH/NIAMS P30 AR074992).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Kim, Y., Brodt, M.D., Tang, S.Y., Silva, M.J. (2021). MicroCT for Scanning and Analysis of Mouse Bones. In: Hilton, M.J. (eds) Skeletal Development and Repair. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2230. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1028-2_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1028-2_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-1027-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-1028-2
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols