Bone Material Quality

Abstract

One important role of our skeleton is to fulfil mechanical functions and therefore be the mechanical support of our body enabling complex movement and locomotion as well as safety housing for sensitive organs. In this book chapter, you will learn about the characteristics of the bone material and their role for the mechanical performance of the bone at organ level. First, we give an overview of the hierarchical organization of the bone, the heterogeneity of bone material structure and the composition from microscale to nanoscale. Second, we describe important technical terms related to bone deformation; we present bone material quality parameters and discuss their role in bone deformation. Third, we briefly explain the most important current techniques for the characterization of the bone material quality light and electron microscopy methods, X-ray scattering and fluorescence, vibrational spectroscopic techniques, etc. Forth, we present material characteristics in clinical examples of bone fragility including postmenopausal osteoporosis and treatment and osteogenesis imperfecta.