Abstract
Mechanical stimuli are critical to the growth, maintenance, and repair of the skeleton. The adaptation of bone to mechanical forces has primarily been studied in cortical bone. As a result, the mechanisms of bone adaptation to mechanical forces are not well-understood in cancellous bone. Clinically, however, diseases such as osteoporosis primarily affect cancellous tissue and mechanical solutions could counteract cancellous bone loss. We previously developed an in vivo model in the rabbit to study cancellous functional adaptation by applying well-controlled mechanical loads to cancellous sites. In the rabbit, in vivo loading of the lateral aspect of the distal femoral condyle simulated the in vivo bone-implant environment and enhanced bone mass. Using animal-specific computational models and further in vivo experiments we demonstrate here that the number of loading cycles and loading duration modulate the cancellous response by increasing bone volume fraction and thickening trabeculae to reduce the strains experienced in the bone tissue with loading and stiffen the tissue in the loading direction.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Drs. Timothy Wright and Elizabeth Meyers for their substantial contributions to the model development, Dr. Harrie Weinans for the microCT scanning in the “number of cycles” study, and Dr. Bettina Willie for helpful discussions of the data.
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This project was funded by the Oxnard Foundation, the National Science Foundation (BES9753164, BES9875383), the National Institutes of Health (P30-AR46121), the Frese Foundation, the Clark Foundation, and the Kirby Foundation.
Each author certifies that his or her institution has approved the animal protocol for this investigation and that all investigations were conducted in conformity with ethical principles of research.
This work was performed at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY.
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van der Meulen, M.C.H., Yang, X., Morgan, T.G. et al. The Effects of Loading on Cancellous Bone in the Rabbit. Clin Orthop Relat Res 467, 2000–2006 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-009-0897-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-009-0897-4