Staines Katherine A, Madi Kamel, Javaheri Behzad, Lee Peter D, Pitsillides Andrew A
School of Applied Sciences, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
School of Materials, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
Front Mater. 2018 Jan 23;4:48. doi: 10.3389/fmats.2017.00048.
The epiphyseal growth plate is a developmental region responsible for linear bone growth, in which chondrocytes undertake a tightly regulated series of biological processes. Concomitant with the cessation of growth and sexual maturation, the human growth plate undergoes progressive narrowing, and ultimately disappears. Despite the crucial role of this growth plate fusion "bridging" event, the precise mechanisms by which it is governed are complex and yet to be established. Progress is hindered by the current methods for growth plate visualization; these are invasive and largely rely on histological procedures. Here, we describe our non-invasive method utilizing synchrotron X-ray computed microtomography for the examination of growth plate bridging, which ultimately leads to its closure coincident with termination of further longitudinal bone growth. We then apply this method to a dataset obtained from a benchtop micro computed tomography scanner to highlight its potential for wide usage. Furthermore, we conduct finite element modeling at the micron-scale to reveal the effects of growth plate bridging on local tissue mechanics. Employment of these 3D analyses of growth plate bone bridging is likely to advance our understanding of the physiological mechanisms that control growth plate fusion.
骨骺生长板是负责骨骼线性生长的发育区域，其中软骨细胞进行一系列严格调控的生物学过程。随着生长停止和性成熟，人类生长板逐渐变窄，最终消失。尽管这种生长板融合“桥接”事件起着关键作用，但其精确的调控机制复杂且尚未明确。目前用于生长板可视化的方法阻碍了研究进展；这些方法具有侵入性，且很大程度上依赖于组织学程序。在此，我们描述了一种利用同步加速器X射线计算机断层扫描的非侵入性方法来检查生长板桥接，该桥接最终导致其闭合，与进一步的纵向骨骼生长终止同时发生。然后我们将此方法应用于从台式微型计算机断层扫描仪获得的数据集，以突出其广泛应用的潜力。此外，我们在微米尺度上进行有限元建模，以揭示生长板桥接对局部组织力学的影响。采用这些对生长板骨桥接的三维分析可能会增进我们对控制生长板融合的生理机制的理解。
