Abstract
Trabecular bone is a tissue with a complex 3D structure, consisting of struts and plates, which attains its mature morphology during growth in a process called ‘modeling’. In maturity, the tissue is renewed continuously by local bone resorption and subsequent formation in a process called ‘remodeling’. Both these metabolic activities are executed by bone-resorbing osteoclastic and bone-forming osteoblastic cells. It is known that bone mass and trabecular orientation are adapted to the external forces and that alternative loading conditions lead to adaptations of the internal tissue architecture. The question is how the characteristics of external loads are sensed in the bone, and how they are translated to structural adaptation of the tissue. The time scale of the underlying processes is on the order of months, or even years. This aspect makes bone a complex research topic. In this paper, we discuss the application of computer simulation to investigate the remarkable adaptive processes. We describe our developments of empirical models in the past 15 years, able to predict bone adaptation to external loads from a macroscopic level towards a cell-based level, in which the most important relationships of the cellular processes are captured. The latest model explains the morphological phenomena observed in trabecular bone at a microscopic level.
Highlights
Bone tissue, which forms the skeleton, is a remarkable material
In order to test whether our theory http://rcin.org.pl can produce trabecular-like structures in three dimensions, with morphological characteristics in a quantitative realistic range, for actual trabecular bone, we developed a 3-dimensional computer simulation model that can be applied to a small domain of bone tissue
The computational simulation models based on these theories proved useful tools for prosthetic design
Summary
Bone tissue, which forms the skeleton, is a remarkable material. Two different types of bone tissue are distinguished. It has a complex three-dimensional structure consisting of struts and plates and is mainly found near joint surfaces, at the end of long bones and within vertebrae. Improved understanding of bone cell biology is an important issue in order to prevent osteoporosis and to improve physical and pharmaceutical treatment methods, as well as prosthetic designs It involves many complex biochemical processes of which much is unknown. One approach to obtain insight in bone cell biology is by isolating the different components to unravel their individual (and often very complex) behavior This cannot fully explain the behavior of bone as a whole organ, it can provide valuable information. For a wider historical survey we refer to Hart and Fri tton ( 1997)
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