MULTISCALE MECHANOBIOLOGICAL MODELING OF THE CORTICAL/SPONGY INTERFACE USING FINITE ELEMENTS

Abstract

In this paper, we describe a mathematical model of bone remodeling that integrates the activities of the bone cells and the mechanical behavior of the bone in an intermediate cortical/trabecular zone. This behavior decreases and increases as the bone moves from a dense cortical zone to a less dense porous trabecular zone. The bone remodeling is a combined process of resorption and formation driven primarily by osteoclasts and osteoblasts. The evolution of the bone cell population involves osteoblast-osteoclast signaling, which is mediated by the biological factors and receives a mechanical stimulus assessed at the microscopic scale. Excessive stress on the bone causes microdamage that induces changes in the structural integrity and microarchitecture. This phenomenon explains the attention paid to the mechanical properties of the bone. In this context, numerical simulations were performed in a mechanobiological model, in which different mechanical and biological parameters were considered. A three-dimensional finite-element model of a human proximal femur was generated, and the simulation of the bone remodeling algorithm was implemented. The current work is an exploratory numerical study, and the results obtained reveal the impact of the mechanical properties on the remodeling process of the intermediate bone subjected to cyclic loading, highlighting the effects of the selected parameters for the different remodeling periods.