Accretion of Bone Quantity and Quality in the Developing Mouse Skeleton

Journal Article · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2007 · Journal of Bone and Mineral Research

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1359/jbmr.070402· OSTI ID:929967

Miller, L; Little, W; Schirmer, A; Sheik, F; Busa, B; Judex, S

To meet the mechanical challenges during early development, the skeleton requires the rapid accretion of bone quality and bone quantity. Here, we describe early bone development in the mouse skeleton and test the hypothesis that specific compositional properties determine the stiffness of the tissue. Tibias of female BALB mice were harvested at eight time-points (n = 4 each) distributed between 1 and 40 days of age and subjected to morphometric ({mu}CT), chemical (Fourier transform infrared microscpectroscopy), and mechanical (nanoindentation) analyses. Tibias of 450-day-old mice served as fully mineralized control specimens. In this work, we found that bone mineral formation proceeded very rapidly in mice by 1 day of age, where the degree of mineralization, the tissue mineral density, and the mineral crystallinity reached 36%, 51%, and 87% of the adult values, respectively. However, even though significant mineralization had occurred, the elastic modulus of 1-day-old bone was only 14% of its adult value, indicating that the intrinsic stiffening of the bone lags considerably behind the initial mineral formation.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) National Synchrotron Light Source
• Sponsoring Organization: Doe - Office Of Science
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-98CH10886
• OSTI ID: 929967
• Report Number(s): BNL--80571-2008-JA
• Journal Information: Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, Journal Name: Journal of Bone and Mineral Research Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 22; ISSN JBMREJ; ISSN 0884-0431
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
DENSITY
FEMALES
FLEXIBILITY
HYPOTHESIS
MICE
MINERALIZATION
MINERALS
SKELETON
national synchrotron light source