Age-Related Changes in Trabecular and Cortical Bone Microstructure

Abstract

The elderly population has substantially increased worldwide. Aging is a complex process, and the effects of aging are myriad and insidious, leading to progressive deterioration of various organs, including the skeleton. Age-related bone loss and resultant osteoporosis in the elderly population increase the risk for fractures and morbidity. Osteoporosis is one of the most common conditions associated with aging, and age is an independent risk factor for osteoporotic fractures. With the development of noninvasive imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT), micro-CT, and high resolution peripheral quantitative CT (HR-pQCT), imaging of the bone architecture provides important information about age-related changes in bone microstructure and estimates of bone strength. In the past two decades, studies of human specimens using imaging techniques have revealed decreased bone strength in older adults compared with younger adults. The present paper addresses recently studied age-related changes in trabecular and cortical bone microstructure based primarily on HR-pQCT and micro-CT. We specifically focus on the three-dimensional microstructure of the vertebrae, femoral neck, and distal radius, which are common osteoporotic fracture sites.

Performance of osteoporosis self-assessment tool in detecting low bone mineral density in menopausal women

“…Similar results were obtained in several previous studies. (13,17,18) However, the percentage of subjects with low BMD in the present study was relatively high as compared with the aforementioned studies, and even with a previous study in Indonesia. (3) The difference may be the result of differences in T score cut off values, subject characteristics, type of DXA equipment and their operators.…”

“…The OST sensitivity was highest for BMD of the proximal femur or total hip because in these regions the cortical bone thinned out more rapidly as a result of aging and underwent fractures. (18) The number of subjects with low BMD in the present study was substantial. According to bone location, low BMD was most frequent in the lumbar spine.…”

Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Prevent Systemic Bone Loss in Collagen-Induced Arthritis

“…These results suggested that ASC treatment protected not only periarticular but also systemic bone loss. Trabecular bone remodeling (turnover) units occur in much greater numbers due to high surface area/bone matrix volume configuration than the cortical bone, resulting in bone turnover rate at the trabecular sites being much higher than at the cortical sites (39). Therefore, increased osteoclastogenesis under any pathological condition such as the one we observed with CIA is more likely to result in the loss of trabecular bones over cortical bones as the remodeling event is triggered by osteoclasts.…”

Challenges in longitudinal measurements with HR-pQCT: Evaluation of a 3D registration method to improve bone microarchitecture and strength measurement reproducibility

“…Bone strength, estimated using micro-finite element analysis (μFEA), was also associated with prevalent fracture [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Moreover, HR-pQCT has been used to assess age-related bone loss [15][16][17][18][19] and to monitor variations in microarchitecture parameters during osteoporosis treatments [20][21][22][23][24][25][26].…”