Relationships between density and Young’s modulus with microporosity and physico-chemical properties of Wistar rat cortical bone from growth to senescence

The aim of this study is to assess density and elastic properties of Wistar rat cortical bone from growth to senescence and to correlate them with morphological and physico-chemical properties of bone. During growth (from 1 to 9 months), bone density and Young’s modulus were found to increase from 1659 ± 85 to 2083 ± 13 kg m−3 and from 8 ± 0.8 to 19.6 ± 0.7 GPa respectively. Bone microporosity was found to decrease from 8.1 ± 0.7 % to 3.3 ± 0.7 %. Physico-chemical investigations exhibited a mineralization of bone matrix and a maturation of apatite crystals, as protein content decreased from 21.4 ± 0.2 % to 17.6 ± 0.6 % and apatite crystal size and carbonate content increased (c-axis length: from 151 to 173 Å and CO3W%: from 4.1 ± 0.3 % to 6.1 ± 0.2 %). At adult age, all properties stabilized. During senescence, a slow decrease of mechanical properties was first observed (from 12 to 18 months, ρ = 2089 ± 14 to 2042 ± 30 kg m−3 and E 3 =19.8 ± 1.3 to 14.8 ± 1.5 GPa), followed by a stabilization. Physico-chemical properties stabilized while microporosity increased slightly (from 3.3% to 4%) but not significantly ( p > 0.05 ). A multiple regression analysis showed that morphological and physico-chemical properties had significant effects on density regression model. Microporosity had a greater effect on Young’s modulus regression model than physico-chemical properties. This study showed that bone structure, mineralization and apatite maturation should be considered to improve the understanding of bone mechanical behaviour.