Turnover and degeneration of trabecular bone

Summary form only. The geometry and architecture of bone tissue is a consequence of the activities of the cells, probably strongly mediated by mechanical load. In order to study the consequences of the cellular activities to parameters at the level of the whole bone, we have developed computer simulation models incorporating events directly related to activities of the cells which resorb and form bone matrix. The models enable us to relate several parameters such as depth of the resorption pits by bone resorbing cells or bone formation deficit by bone forming cells to parameters describing the quality of the bone structure such as bone mineral density and connectivity of the trabecular struts in the structure. In addition, the mechanical integrity of a specific bone architecture is evaluated using micro-mechanical finite element models. The relationships found from these models give insight on how cellular activity contributes to mechanical integrity and failure risk of diseased bone or bone treated with drug intervention