Tensile trabeculae--myth or reality?

• Published in: Journal of musculoskeletal & neuronal interactions 2011-03, Vol.11 (1), p.1-7
• Main Author: Sverdlova, N
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Biomechanical Phenomena - physiology; Biophysics - methods; Biophysics - trends; Bone and Bones - anatomy & histology; Bone and Bones - physiology; Humans; Tensile Strength - physiology
• ISSN: 1108-7161

Understanding of the functional role of the trabecular bone is very important for the analysis and computer-aided simulations of bone remodelling processes. The aspired wide clinical applications remain a remote future despite a great number of developed up-to-date approaches and theories and collected data on both material properties of the trabecular bone and its reaction to various stimuli. It is widely accepted that the mechanical loading plays the major role for the structure of the cancellous bone. The in vivo loading conditions of the cancellous bone are not known. Hence, for the computer-aided analysis and modelling of the trabecular bone specimens, simplified loading conditions are used. Also for the analysis of the cancellous bone as a part of a whole bone simplified loading conditions are assumed based on previous research without questioning its accuracy or relevance to the real in vivo conditions. In particular, the bending loading of the bone, which originates from the well-known observations made more than a century ago that have evolved in the trajectorial theory or "tensile trabeculae tradition", is often assumed to reflect the physiological loading conditions of bones. Some studies show that the bending or tensile-compressive orthogonal loading conditions for the cancellous bone may lead to plausible results. However, some other research works suggest that the presence of the tensile trabecular structures (particularly in the proximal femur) is doubtful and the bending loading conditions in bone should be treated with caution. Moreover, the loading conditions with compensated (or minimised) bending also produce results that correlate with the material distribution in the bone. The purpose of this review is to analyse some of the data and ideas available in the literature and to discuss the question of the major factors that define the shape and structure of the trabecular bone during the process of functional adaptation.