Elastic moduli and poisson’s ratios of microscopic human femoral trabeculae

Abstract

Multi-directional mechanical properties of human cancellous bone tissue were never measured using a compressive test with microscopic cubic specimens. In this study, a small scale compressive testing machine with nano meter resolution and a measurement system for Poisson’s ratio with sub-nano meter resolution were developed to measure accurate microscopic mechanical properties of human cancellous bone tissue (CBT). The measured mean longitudinal (E1), postero-anterior (E2), and latero-medial (E3) elastic moduli were 3.47 GPa (S.D. ±0.41), 2.57 GPa (S.D. ±0.28), and 2.54 GPa (S.D. ±0.22), respectively. ANOVA showed that the longitudinal elastic modulus (E1) was significantly (p < 0.01) greater than the postero-anterior (E2) and latero-medial (E3) elastic moduli. For Poisson’s ratios, υ12was significantly (p <0.01) higher than υ23and υ31.