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Modeling deformation-induced fluid flow in cortical bone's canalicular-lacunar system.
S Gururaja1, H J Kim, C C Swan
1Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Center for Computer-Aided Design, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
Annals of Biomedical Engineering
|February 16, 2005
Summary
This study models bone adaptation, showing how mechanical loading causes fluid flow in the lacunar-canalicular system. This fluid flow generates pressures and energy dissipation, crucial for bone
Area of Science:
- Biomechanics
- Biomaterials Science
- Cellular Mechanobiology
Background:
- Bone adaptation is influenced by mechanical stimuli.
- Fluid flow within the bone's microarchitecture is a proposed mechano-transduction pathway.
- Understanding fluid dynamics at the lacunar-canalicular scale is key to bone adaptation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and implement a bone poroelasticity model at the lacunar-canalicular scale.
- To investigate the role of load-induced fluid flow in bone adaptation.
- To quantify local fluid flow characteristics near lacunae.
Main Methods:
- Developed a micromechanics-based, 2D poroelastic model of the lacunar-canalicular system.
- Homogenized the pericanalicular bone matrix as a locally anisotropic poroelastic medium.
- Computed fluid pressures, fluid-solid drag forces, and energy dissipation under various loading frequencies.
Main Results:
- Mechanical loading induces microscale stress and strain concentrations around lacunae.
- These concentrations cause spatial variations in pore fluid pressure and fluid flow within canaliculi.
- Deformation-induced fluid pressures in the lacunar-canalicular system exhibit relaxation times on the order of milliseconds.
Conclusions:
- Load-induced fluid flow in the lacunar-canalicular system is a significant mechano-transduction mechanism in bone.
- The model's findings align with experimental measurements of energy dissipation in human cortical bone.
- The study highlights the distinct temporal dynamics of fluid pressure relaxation in the lacunar-canalicular system compared to the Haversian system.
