Stefan Scheiner Faculty
Bone remodeling, Mathematical modeling, Bone cellpopulation dynamics, Continuum micromechanics,Mechanoregulation
Bone remodeling involves the coordinated removal of bone by osteoclasts and addition of bone by osteoblasts, a pro- cess that is modulated by the prevailing mechanical envi- ronment. Here we present a new computational model of bone remodeling, based on coupling a bone cell population model with micromechanical homogenizationof bone stiff- ness. As for mechanoregulation, bone remodeling is con- trolled proportionally to the microscopic strain energy den- sity, on the observation scale where the sensing of the me- chanical loading actually takes place, estimated by means of continuum micromechanics-based strain concentration. This new approach allows us to address how biochemi- cal changes influence bone remodeling and thus affect the composition and mechanical properties of bone, and what mechanisms are responsible for mechanoregulationof bone remodeling. Numerical studies highlight the capabilities of the model: we demonstrate that computationally simu- lated changes of the bone constituent volume fractions are in qualitative agreement with experimental observations for disuse syndromes.
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