The Linea Aspera: A Virtual Case Study Testing Emergence of Form and Function

Abstract

The linea aspera (LA) forms a characteristic ridge along the posterior aspect of the human femur. Absent in youth, the LA emerges during early puberty and becomes more prominent with advancing age. Pauwels, a pioneer of mechanobiology, hypothesized that the LA forms in the precise location where axial intracortical stresses are greatest, effectively "stiffening" the femur in bending. This study reassesses the mechanical role of the LA in virtual models of human femora, accounting for increasing prominence of the LA at juvenile, young adult and aged stages. Using finite element analysis, peak stresses and the relationship between the LA, neutral axis and centroidal axes (CAs) are evaluated for cross-sections along the mid-diaphysis of the virtual femora. Additionally, the relationship between LA and CAs is studied in anatomical cross-sections from Pauwels' manuscript as well as aged cadaveric donors, indicating that his conclusion may have been stymied by lack of modern computational methods. The results of the current study do not support a mechanical role of the LA as its emergence results in less than a 3% decrease in peak stress, while increasing prominence of the LA also serves to rotate CAs away from calculated stress field, implicating a less "bone centric" view of form and function. Anat Rec,

Ancient Human Bone Microstructure in MedievalEngland: Comparisons between Two Socio‐Economic Groups

“…Adhering to the English Heritage guidelines for invasive sampling (Mays et al, ), sections were removed from the posterior linea aspera aspect (Chan et al, ; Miszkiewicz, 2015b) where the most within‐ and between‐bone histological variation had been observed in a preliminary study (Miszkiewicz and Mahoney, ). Linea aspera is an insertion site for lower limb muscles from the adductor and hamstring family (Moore et al, ), although it is stressed that the present study does not ascertain or test a direct muscle‐tendon‐bone growth relationship. Femora were stabilized using a hand‐ (Irwin Quick‐Grip Mini®) or table‐mounted (Dremel Muli‐Vise®) holder.…”

Periosteal thickness and cellularity in mid‐diaphyseal cross‐sections from human femora and tibiae of aged donors

“…Finally, recent studies of aged human femora indicate great variability in femur cross‐sectional shape attributable to the presence and prominence of the linea aspera, a characteristic ridge along the length of the bone that is unique to humans and some non‐human primates. These studies underscore that CAs may be appropriate references for mechanical loading history within but not between patients or human cadaveric donors (Moore et al., ).…”

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“…) information to the nucleus, where gene up-and down regulation leads to stabilization of the cell and/or the cell's environment over time, the cell itself is also an actuator of structural and architectural change as well as new local and global equilibria (Knothe Tate et al, 2016b;Figure 1C). By sensing and transducing information from its environment to the nucleus, where the basic building block proteins of tissues are created and secreted vectorially (with a magnitude/concentration and direction) (Knothe Moore et al, 2014Moore et al, , 2016 to the extracellular matrix, the cell actively influences force balances at all relevant interfaces -between cells, cells and the matrix, and even between the cytoplasm and the nucleus. Cells are indeed smart in a materials science context, if not in a brain science context.…”