Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom.
Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, Harrogate, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2024 Jun 18;19(6):e0290914. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290914. eCollection 2024.
Significant alterations to subchondral trabecular bone microarchitecture are observed in late-stage osteoarthritis (OA). However, detailed investigation of these changes to bone in the ankle are under-reported. This study aimed to fully characterise the trabecular morphology in OA ankle bone specimens compared to non-diseased (ND) controls using both standard and individual-trabecular segmentation-based (ITS) analyses. Ten ND tibial bone specimens were extracted from three cadaveric ankles, as well as five OA bone specimens from patients undergoing total ankle arthroplasty surgery. Each specimen was scanned using microcomputed tomography from which a 4 mm cuboidal volume was extracted for analysis. Morphological parameters for the subchondral trabecular bone were measured using BoneJ (NIH ImageJ) and 3D ITS for whole volumes and at each depth level in 1 mm increments. The results show an overall increase in bone volume fraction (p<0.01) and trabecular thickness (p<0.001) with OA, with a decrease in anisotropy (p<0.05). ITS analysis showed OA bone was composed of more rod-like trabeculae and plate-like trabeculae compared to ND bone. Numerous properties were depth dependent, but the results demonstrated that towards the subchondral bone plate, both rod- and plate-like trabeculae were thicker, rods were longer and plates had increased surface area. Overall, this study has verified key microstructural alterations to ankle subchondral bone that are found in other OA lower-limb joints. Depth-based analysis has highlighted differences of interest for further evaluation into the remodelling mechanisms that occur with OA, which is critical to understanding the role of subchondral bone microarchitecture in the progression of the disease.
在晚期骨关节炎(OA)中,观察到软骨下骨小梁微观结构的显著改变。然而,对踝关节骨这些变化的详细研究报道较少。本研究旨在使用标准和基于个体小梁分割(ITS)的分析方法,全面描述 OA 踝关节骨标本与非疾病(ND)对照标本的小梁形态。从三个尸体踝关节中提取了 10 个 ND 胫骨骨标本,以及 5 个来自接受全踝关节置换手术的 OA 骨标本。对每个标本使用微计算机断层扫描进行扫描,从该扫描中提取 4 毫米的立方体体积进行分析。使用 BoneJ(NIH ImageJ)和整个体积的 3D ITS 以及以 1 毫米增量的每个深度水平测量软骨下骨小梁的形态参数。结果显示,OA 组的骨体积分数(p<0.01)和小梁厚度(p<0.001)总体增加,各向异性降低(p<0.05)。ITS 分析显示,与 ND 骨相比,OA 骨由更多的杆状小梁和板状小梁组成。许多性质与深度有关,但结果表明,在靠近软骨下骨板的地方,杆状和板状小梁都更厚,杆更长,板的表面积增加。总体而言,本研究证实了踝关节软骨下骨的关键微观结构改变,这些改变在其他 OA 下肢关节中也有发现。基于深度的分析突出了感兴趣的差异,进一步评估 OA 发生的重塑机制,这对于理解软骨下骨微观结构在疾病进展中的作用至关重要。