Volume to density relation in adult human bone tissue

Uniformity of tissue mineralisation is a strongly debated issue, due to its relation with bone mechanical behaviour. Bone mineral density (BMD) is measured in the clinical practice and is applied in computational application to derive material proprieties of bone tissue. However, BMD cannot identify if the variation in bone density is related to a modification of tissue mineral density (TMD), a change in bone volume or a combination of the two. This study was aimed to investigate whether TMD can be assumed as a constant in adult human bone (trabecular and cortical).A total number of 115 cylindrical bone specimens were collected. An inter-site analysis (96 specimens, 2 donors) was performed on cortical and trabecular specimens extracted from different anatomical sites. An intra-site study (19 specimens, 19 donors) was performed on specimens extracted from femoral heads. Bone volume fraction (BV/TV) was computed by means of a micro-computed tomography. Furthermore, ash density (ρ_ash) was measured. TMD was computed as the ratio between ρ_ash and BV/TV.It was found that the TMD of trabecular (1.24±0.16 g/cm³) and cortical (1.19±0.06 g/cm³) bone were not statistically different (p=0.31). Furthermore, the linear regression between ρ_ash and BV/TV was statistically significant (r²=0.99, p<0.001). Intra- and inter-site analyses demonstrated that the mineral distribution was independent of the extraction site.The present study suggests that TMD can be assumed reasonably constant in non-pathological adult bone tissue. Consequently, it is suggested that TMD can be managed as a constant in computational models, varying only BV in relation to clinical densitometric analysis.