Tissue viscoelasticity is related to tissue composition but may not fully predict the apparent-level viscoelasticity in human trabecular bone - An experimental and finite element study.

Ojanen, X; Tanska, P; Malo, M K H; Isaksson, H; Väänänen, S P; Koistinen, A P; Grassi, L; Magnusson, S P et al. · J Biomech · 2017

biomechanical · Level V

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Abstract

Trabecular bone is viscoelastic under dynamic loading. However, it is unclear how tissue viscoelasticity controls viscoelasticity at the apparent-level. In this study, viscoelasticity of cylindrical human trabecular bone samples (n=11, male, age 18-78 years) from 11 proximal femurs were characterized using dynamic and stress-relaxation testing at the apparent-level and with creep nanoindentation at the tissue-level. In addition, bone tissue elasticity was determined using scanning acoustic microscope (SAM). Tissue composition and collagen crosslinks were assessed using Raman micro-spectroscopy and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), respectively. Values of material parameters were obtained from finite element (FE) models by optimizing tissue-level creep and apparent-level stress-relaxation to experimental nanoindentation and unconfined compression testing values, respectively, utilizing the second order Prony series to depict viscoelasticity. FE simulations showed that tissue-level equilibrium elastic modulus (E<sub>eq</sub>) increased with increasing crystallinity (r=0.730, p=.011) while at the apparent-level it increased with increasing hydroxylysyl pyridinoline content (r=0.718, p=.019). In addition, the normalized shear modulus g<sub>1</sub> (r=-0.780, p=.005) decreased with increasing collagen ratio (amide III/CH<sub>2</sub>) at the tissue-level, but increased (r=0.696, p=.025) with increasing collagen ratio at the apparent-level. No significant relations were found between the measured or simulated viscoelastic parameters at the tissue- and apparent-levels nor were the parameters related to tissue elasticity determined with SAM. However, only E<sub>eq</sub>, g<sub>2</sub> and relaxation time τ<sub>1</sub> from simulated viscoelastic values were statistically different between tissue- and apparent-levels (p<.01). These findings indicate that bone tissue viscoelasticity is affected by tissue composition but may not fully predict the macroscale viscoelasticity in human trabecular bone.

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