Relationship between microstructure and degree of mineralization in subchondral bone of osteoarthritis: A synchrotron radiation µCT study

Abstract

We analyzed the microstructure and degree of mineralization of the subchondral trabecular bone in hip osteoarthritis (OA) using synchrotron radiation computed tomography (SRCT) to identify the relationship between bone structure and bone turnover. Subchondral bone samples were extracted from femoral heads of 10 terminal-staged hip OA patients. The SRCT scan was performed at 30 keV energy and 5.9 mm voxel size. Trabecular bone structure, bone cyst volume, and the degree of trabecular bone mineralization were measured, and correlations between bone structure and the degree of mineralization were analyzed. In addition, the trabecular bone was divided into the area immediately surrounding the bone cyst and the remaining area, and they were compared. The average cyst volume fraction in the whole region was 31.8%, and the bone volume fraction in the bone region was 55.6%. Cyst volume was the only structural parameter that had a significant correlation with the degree of mineralization. The degree of mineralization was diminished when the bone cyst was larger (r ¼ À0.81, p ¼ 0.004). The trabecular bone immediately surrounding the bone cyst had a lower degree of mineralization when compared with the remaining trabecular bone (p ¼ 0.008). In the bone sclerosis of OA subchondral bone, there are many large and small bone cysts, which are expected to play a significant part in the high bone turnover of OA. ß

Influence of age and gender on microarchitecture and bone remodeling in subchondral bone of the osteoarthritic femoral head

“…1) [19][20][21]. Before extraction, the femoral head was immobilized by a holder, with the load-bearing region placed in the center.…”

Techniques to assess bone ultrastructure organization: orientation and arrangement of mineralized collagen fibrils

“…At higher FOVs, SR-CT offers a tomographic approach, with the limitation that SR-CT cannot resolve single fibrils and is limited to visualization of fibril bundles only. Moreover, SR-CT allows structural features to be studied, such as the intracortical canal network or the lacuno-canalicular network [3,217], microcracks [272], pathological cysts [273] and trabecular bone micro-architecture [274]. Similar to SR-CT, optical microscopy techniques, such as CLSM or SHG, are limited to visualization of fibril bundles only.…”

Characterization of knee osteoarthritis-related changes in trabecular bone using texture parameters at various levels of spatial resolution—a simulation study

“…Increasing efforts have been made to develop imaging biomarkers on the basis of conventional radiography 5,14-18 and MRI [19][20][21][22][23][24] to quantify subchondral bone architecture changes in vivo and microCT has often been used to assess trabecular structure in bone specimen. [25][26][27][28] However, to the best of our knowledge, only one study used CT to OA-related changes in trabecular bone T Lowitz et al investigate the structure of subchondral trabecular bone in vivo in human OA hips. 29 The authors found significant correlations between bone structure and joint space parameters.…”