Microdamage caused by fatigue loading in human cancellous bone: relationship to reductions in bone biomechanical performance

Vertebral fractures associated with osteoporosis are often the result of tissue damage accumulated over time. Microscopic tissue damage (microdamage) generated in vivo is believed to be a mechanically relevant aspect of bone quality that may contribute to fracture risk. Although the presence of micr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2013-12, Vol.8 (12), p.e83662-e83662
Main Authors: Lambers, Floor M, Bouman, Amanda R, Rimnac, Clare M, Hernandez, Christopher J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aerospace engineering
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Bioaccumulation
Biocompatibility
Biology
Biomechanical Phenomena
Biomechanics
Biomedical materials
Bone and Bones - pathology
Bone Neoplasms - pathology
Bones
Cancellous bone
Concentration (composition)
Cores
Crack propagation
Cyclic loads
Damage accumulation
Engineering
Fatigue
Fatigue failure
Fatigue life
Female
Fractures
Humans
Loading
Male
Materials Science
Mechanical failure
Mechanical loading
Mechanical properties
Medicine
Modulus of elasticity
Osteoporosis
Spine
Stress, Mechanical
Tissues
Uranyl acetate
Vertebra
Vertebrae
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Vertebral fractures associated with osteoporosis are often the result of tissue damage accumulated over time. Microscopic tissue damage (microdamage) generated in vivo is believed to be a mechanically relevant aspect of bone quality that may contribute to fracture risk. Although the presence of microdamage in bone tissue has been documented, the relationship between loading, microdamage accumulation and mechanical failure is not well understood. The aim of the current study was to determine how microdamage accumulates in human vertebral cancellous bone subjected to cyclic fatigue loading. Cancellous bone cores (n = 32) from the third lumbar vertebra of 16 donors (10 male, 6 female, age 76 ± 8.8, mean ± SD) were subjected to compressive cyclic loading at σ/E0 = 0.0035 (where σ is stress and E0 is the initial Young's modulus). Cyclic loading was suspended before failure at one of seven different amounts of loading and specimens were stained for microdamage using lead uranyl acetate. Damage volume fraction (DV/BV) varied from 0.8 ± 0.5% (no loading) to 3.4 ± 2.1% (fatigue-loaded to complete failure) and was linearly related to the reductions in Young's modulus caused by fatigue loading (r(2) = 0.60, p
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0083662