The contention of this thesis is that a pathological change in bone tissue material properties during osteoporosis ahers the mechanical stimuli to bone remodelling cells and drives them to adapt the trabecular architecture resulting in a reduction in bone strength. To argue the case for this thesis, three separate but inter-related hypotheses with respect to the regulatory mechanisms governing bone remodelling are tested. These hypotheses are (1) A pathological change in the material properties of bone tissue occurs during osteoporosis, (2) Bone remodelling is regulated by a combination of strain and damage, and (3) Suppressing bone turnover in drug treated bone results in weaker bone tissue than that of normal and osteoporotic bone.
A method to evaluate mechanical behaviour of single bone trabeculae is developed to assess the mechanical properties of normal, osteoporotic and drug treated bone tissue. A micro-tensile testing apparatus is developed that minimizes errors due to misalignment and stress concentrations at the grips. The method is used to test the hypothesis that the strength of single trabeculae will differ for normal, ovarectomized, and drug treated rat bones over the course of ageing (hypotheses 1 and 3).
A method of producing accurate solid models of individual trabeculae, through the use of serial sectioning at micro resolutions and micro-CT scanning, is developed. These models are used to analyse the stress distribution within trabeculae and the effects of the presence of resorption lacunae on these distributions in order to determine whether the structure of the individual trabecula may be maintained by strain or by the presence of microdamage, or a combination of both (hypothesis 2).
A mechano-regulation rule for bone remodelling is developed that relates the mechanical stimuli to the change in bone mass. This rule is applied to a computational model of a bone trabecula to predict bone remodelling along trabecular surfaces. These simulations reveal the regulatory mechanisms that govern initiation, propagation and termination of the normal bone remodelling process (hypothesis 2).
Finally, this rule is applied to models with material properties of osteoporotic bone tissue to investigate the main contention of this thesis.