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If bone is the answer, then what is the question?

¹Orthopaedic Research Laboratory, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. rhuiskes@orthp.azn.ul

Journal of Anatomy

|September 27, 2000

Summary

Bone's intricate trabecular architecture is not driven by mathematical optimization for strength and weight. Instead, it arises from a biological regulatory process responding to mechanical usage, as demonstrated by computer simulations.

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Area of Science:

Biomechanics
Bone Biology
Computational Simulation

Background:

19th-century scientists proposed bone trabecular morphology optimizes for maximal strength and minimal weight, guided by mathematical rules.
Julius Wolff's 'Law of Bone Remodeling' framed bone adaptation as a question of structural optimization.
Previous hypotheses linked trabecular architecture to stress trajectories and functional adaptation principles.

Purpose of the Study:

To re-evaluate the 'maximal strength/minimal weight' principle as the driver of bone trabecular architecture.
To investigate Wilhelm Roux's principle of functional adaptation as a self-organizing tissue process.
To determine if computer simulations can predict bone formation and adaptation based on mechanical usage.

Main Methods:

Finite element analysis (FEA) to study stress transfer in bone specimens.
Comparison of FEA results with anatomical bone architecture.
Computer simulations modeling bone remodeling as a regulatory process driven by mechanical usage and osteocyte mechanosensitivity.

Main Results:

The maximal strength/minimal weight principle does not explain bone architecture formation or adaptation; observed similarities with stress trajectories are coincidental.
Roux's paradigm of functional adaptation, when quantified, realistically predicts trabecular formation and adaptation.
Bone architecture is a product of a biological regulatory process, not mathematical optimization rules.

Conclusions:

Bone trabecular architecture is not an answer to the question of structural optimization posed by Wolff's Law.
A biological regulatory process, governed by mechanical loading and osteocyte sensing, dictates bone structure.
Computer simulations of this regulatory process hold promise for understanding bone adaptation mechanisms.

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