Imaging the Orientation of Hydroxyapatite Crystallites Across Full Mouse Femurs.

Abstract

Imaging the orientations of crystallites in bone require the usage of synchrotron X-ray radiation, which is a limited resource for researchers. Thus scans have historically been limited to either small regions or few samples. In the present study, we scan 16 full frontal cross sections of mouse femora. This makes it possible to study orientation statistically across many different bones and animals, while preserving the full picture. From the following analysis, we can deduce that while the trabecular bone in the shaft have a larger fraction of oriented crystallites than other regions in the bone, the oriented fraction is more well alligned in the cortical bone in the shaft compared to other regions in the bone. We also see that the crystallites in the cortical and trabecular bone are longer than those in the femoral head and the condyle. This study shows the need and possibility of scaning larger regions to understand bioinorganic materials.