Bone collagen network integrity and transverse fracture toughness of human cortical bone

摘要

Greater understanding of the determinants of skeletal fragility is highly sought due to the great burden that bone affecting diseases and fractures have on economies, societies and health care systems. Being a complex, hierarchical composite of collagen type-I and non-stoichiometric substituted hydroxyapatite, bone derives toughness from its organic phase. In this study, we tested whether early observations that a strong correlation between bone collagen integrity measured by thermomechanical methods and work to fracture exist in a more general and heterogeneous sampling of the population.