Age-related Changes in the Mechanical Properties of Interstitial Bone Tissuesage-related Changes in the Mechanical Properties of Interstitial Bone Tissues

INTRODUCTION: Age-related and osteoporotic bone fractures are a major concern in the health care of elderly. In the past, large amount of studies have investigated age-related changes in the bulk tissue properties of bone.[1-3] Nonetheless, it is necessary to examine the the localized material properties in individual osteons and interstitial bone tissues to understand the age-related changes in bone. In the past, micro or nanoindentation techniques have been used to characterize the hardness and elastic modulus values in the localized tissue.[4, 5] However, these techniques cannot provide the strength and toughness measurements of the tissues, which is more important than hardness and stiffness to understand the underlying mechanisms of age-related bone fractures. To this end, the present study was attempted to first develop a methodology to measure the tissue properties at these localized regions in bone, and then to examine age-related changes in the mechanical behavior of interstitial bone tissues using the methodology.