Bone Tissue Stiffness in Three Orthogonal Directions and its Dependence on Temperature

Poster Number

02

Submitting Student(s)

Arielle Black, Winthrop University

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Biology

Faculty Mentor

Meir Barak, Ph.D., D.V.M.

Abstract

The purpose of this experiment was to discover the effect of temperature on the stiffness of cortical bone. Four cortical bone cubes (2 mm on each side) were cut from the proximal medial diaphysis of five young white-tailed deer femora. The cubes were tested in compression three times: once at room temperature (20.4 °C), and then at cold (4 °C) and hot (70.5 °C) temperatures, respectively, in individual trials. The stiffness of each bone cube was measured in the axial, radial and transverse orientations. Our results demonstrated that hot and cold temperatures increased bone’s stiffness in the axial direction, but surprisingly had little effect on bone’s stiffness in the radial and transverse directions. Since higher bone stiffness in vivo may lead to increased risk of bone failure (i.e., fracture or shatter) extra care is needed (e.g., warming of lower extremities) when people train in extreme climate conditions.

Start Date

24-4-2015 3:20 PM

End Date

24-4-2015 4:50 PM

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS
 
Apr 24th, 3:20 PM Apr 24th, 4:50 PM

Bone Tissue Stiffness in Three Orthogonal Directions and its Dependence on Temperature

Richardson Ballroom

The purpose of this experiment was to discover the effect of temperature on the stiffness of cortical bone. Four cortical bone cubes (2 mm on each side) were cut from the proximal medial diaphysis of five young white-tailed deer femora. The cubes were tested in compression three times: once at room temperature (20.4 °C), and then at cold (4 °C) and hot (70.5 °C) temperatures, respectively, in individual trials. The stiffness of each bone cube was measured in the axial, radial and transverse orientations. Our results demonstrated that hot and cold temperatures increased bone’s stiffness in the axial direction, but surprisingly had little effect on bone’s stiffness in the radial and transverse directions. Since higher bone stiffness in vivo may lead to increased risk of bone failure (i.e., fracture or shatter) extra care is needed (e.g., warming of lower extremities) when people train in extreme climate conditions.