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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 37: Biomaterials
BP 37.4: Talk
Friday, March 26, 2010, 11:00–11:15, H43
The ordered arrangement of secondary osteons in long bones — •Carolin Lukas1, Ron Shahar2, John Dunlop1, Sharon Papo2, and Richard Weinkamer1 — 1Max Planck Institut of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam — 2The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
Bone remodeling, the renewal process of bone, leads in compact bone to the formation of cylindrical structures called osteons. In the central cavity (haversian canal) of the osteon a blood vessel is responsible for the supply of nutrients to the bone cells. This work aims (i) to quantify the order in the arrangement of haversian canals and (ii) to use a simple model to explain the measured order. Using microscopy we studied different long bones (radius, metacarpal) from horses and dogs at different anatomical locations. The spatial arrangement of osteons was quantified by the use of the autocorrelation function (ACF) and by the shortest distance distribution (SDD) which describes how far away bone is from its nearest haversian canal. In our model the arrangement of osteons is created by a random sequential addition process. Each osteon is characterized by an haversian canal surrounded by a circular exclusion zone within which the creation of another osteon is prohibited (cherry-pit model). The radii of the exclusion zone are assumed to be normally distributed. The analysis of the microscopic images showed that the ACFs and SDDs are independent of the anatomical location in the horse radius, but not in the metacarpal bone. These differences could be explained by the model, by either increasing the mean value of the exclusion radius or the standard deviation.