A Cross-Sectional Study of Bone Nanomechanics in Hip Fracture and Aging.

Bone mechanics is well understood at every length scale except the nano-level. We aimed to investigate the relationship between bone nanoscale and tissue-level mechanics experimentally. We tested two hypotheses: (1) nanoscale strains were lower in hip fracture patients versus controls, and (2) nanoscale mineral and fibril strains were inversely correlated with aging and fracture.

Nanoscale mechanisms in age-related hip-fractures.

Nanoscale mineralized collagen fibrils may be important determinants of whole-bone mechanical properties and contribute to the risk of age-related fractures. In a cross-sectional study nano- and tissue-level mechanics were compared across trabecular sections from the proximal femora of three groups (n = 10 each): ageing non-fractured donors (Controls); untreated fracture patients (Fx-Untreated); bisphosphonate-treated fracture patients (Fx-BisTreated). Collagen fibril, mineral and tissue mechanics were measured using synchrotron X-Ray diffraction of bone sections under load.

Spatially offset Raman spectroscopy for photon migration studies in bones with different mineralization levels.

The ability of Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS) to obtain chemically specific information from below the sample surface makes it a promising technique for non-invasive in vivo diagnosis of bone conditions by sampling bone through the skin. The depth below a surface interrogated by SORS depends on the system's optical properties and is difficult to estimate for complex bone material. This paper uses 830 nm laser excitation to investigate the influence of bone mineralization on photon migration properties in deer antler cortex, equine metacarpal cortex and whale tympanic bulla.