Safira Isna Riski, Ramette Martin, Masouros Spyros D, Bull Anthony M J
Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2024 Nov 29;12:1498812. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2024.1498812. eCollection 2024.
Bone has the capability to adapt its density in response to mechanical stimuli through a process known as bone remodeling, which has been simulated using various algorithms in several studies, with Strain Energy Density (SED) being a commonly used driving parameter. A spatial influence function has been introduced in addition to the remodeling algorithm, which accounts for the influence of neighboring regions on local mechanical stimuli, thereby reducing artificial mesh dependency and mimicking cellular communication in bone. However, no study has implemented the SED-driven algorithm with spatial influence function on a macroscopic 3D bone structure, and there is no physiological explanation on the value used in remodeling parameter. The goal of this study was to assess the effect of the spatial influence function's parameters on the resulting 3D simple cubic structure under compressive loading through a sensitivity analysis. The results demonstrated that the spatial influence function enabled the density distribution to propagate in directions not only aligned with external loads, thus simulating the work of cellular communication. This study also underscores the importance of selecting appropriate parameter values to accurately reflect physiological conditions in bone remodeling simulations, since different parameters influence not only bone mineral density but also the architecture of the resulting bone structure. This work represents a step forward in understanding the interplay between mechanical stimuli and bone remodeling in three dimensions, providing insights that could improve the accuracy of computational models in simulating physiology and pathophysiology.
骨骼具有通过一种称为骨重塑的过程来响应机械刺激而调整其密度的能力，在多项研究中已使用各种算法对该过程进行了模拟，应变能密度（SED）是常用的驱动参数。除了重塑算法外，还引入了一种空间影响函数，该函数考虑了相邻区域对局部机械刺激的影响，从而减少了对人工网格的依赖，并模拟了骨骼中的细胞通讯。然而，尚无研究在宏观三维骨骼结构上实现具有空间影响函数的SED驱动算法，并且对于重塑参数中使用的值也没有生理学解释。本研究的目的是通过敏感性分析评估空间影响函数参数对压缩载荷下所得三维简单立方结构的影响。结果表明，空间影响函数使密度分布不仅能沿与外部载荷对齐的方向传播，从而模拟细胞通讯的作用。本研究还强调了选择合适参数值以准确反映骨重塑模拟中的生理状况的重要性，因为不同参数不仅会影响骨矿物质密度，还会影响所得骨骼结构的架构。这项工作在理解三维机械刺激与骨重塑之间的相互作用方面向前迈出了一步，提供了有助于提高计算模型在模拟生理学和病理生理学方面准确性的见解。
