Mechanical properties of femoral trabecular bone in dogs

Pressel, Thomas; Bouguecha, Anas; Vogt, Ute; Meyer-Lindenberg, Andrea; Behrens, Bernd-Arno; Nolte, Ingo; Windhagen, Henning

Affiliations

¹Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Anna-von-Borries-Str. 1-7, 30625 Hannover, Germany

²Institute of Metal Forming and Metal Forming Machine Tools, University of Hannover, Schönebecker Allee 2, 30823 Garbsen, Germany

³Clinic for Small Domestic Animals, School of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Bischofsholer Damm 15, 30173 Hannover, Germany

Abstract

Background: Studying mechanical properties of canine trabecular bone is important for a better understanding of fracture mechanics or bone disorders and is also needed for numerical simulation of canine femora. No detailed data about elastic moduli and degrees of anisotropy of canine femoral trabecular bone has been published so far, hence the purpose of this study was to measure the elastic modulus of trabecular bone in canine femoral heads by ultrasound testing and to assess whether assuming isotropy of the cancellous bone in femoral heads in dogs is a valid simplification.

Methods: From 8 euthanized dogs, both femora were obtained and cubic specimens were cut from the centre of the femoral head which were oriented along the main pressure and tension trajectories. The specimens were tested using a 100 MHz ultrasound transducer in all three orthogonal directions. The directional elastic moduli of trabecular bone tissue and degrees of anisotropy were calculated.

Results: The elastic modulus along principal bone trajectories was found to be 11.2 GPa ± 0.4, 10.5 ± 2.1 GPa and 10.5 ± 1.8 GPa, respectively. The mean density of the specimens was 1.40 ± 0.09 g/cm3. The degrees of anisotropy revealed a significant inverse relationship with specimen densities. No significant differences were found between the elastic moduli in x, y and z directions, suggesting an effective isotropy of trabecular bone tissue in canine femoral heads.

Discussion: This study presents detailed data about elastic moduli of trabecular bone tissue obtained from canine femoral heads. Limitations of the study are the relatively small number of animals investigated and the measurement of whole specimen densities instead of trabecular bone densities which might lead to an underestimation of Young's moduli. Publications on elastic moduli of trabecular bone tissue present results that are similar to our data.

Conclusion: This study provides data about directional elastic moduli and degrees of anisotropy of canine femoral head trabecular bone and might be useful for biomechanical modeling of proximal canine femora.

Links

DOI: 10.1186/1475-925X-4-17

PubMed: 15774014

PubMedCentral: PMC555578

History

Received: 2004-12-15

Accepted: 2005-03-17

Published: 2005-03-17

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Year	Entry
2012	Christen P, van Rietbergen B, Lambers FM, Müller R, Ito K. Bone morphology allows estimation of loading history in a murine model of bone adaptation. Biomech Model Mechanobiol. March 2012;11(3-4):483-492.
2010	Shetye S. Development of a Novel Endoprosthesis for Canine Limb-Sparing Using a Finite Element Approach [PhD thesis]. Colorado State University; 2010.
2009	Pfeiler TW. Computational and Experimental Analyses of Bone and Adult Stem Cell Mechanobiology [PhD thesis]. North Carolina State University; 2009.
2013	Christen P. Deciphering the Secret Message Within Bone Microstructure [PhD thesis]. Eindhoven University of Technology; 2013.