@article{8b60b9feee664b87a0108f22f9a9143a,
title = "Novel strategies for the characterization of cancellous bone morphology: Virtual isolation and analysis",
abstract = "Objectives: The advent of micro-computed tomography (μCT) made cancellous bone more accessible than ever before. Nevertheless, the characterization of cancellous bone is made difficult by its inherent complexity and the difficulties in defining homology across datasets. Here we propose novel virtual methodological approaches to overcome those issues and complement existing methods. Materials and methods: We present a protocol for the isolation of the whole cancellous region within a μCT scanned bone. This method overcomes the subsampling issues and allows studying cancellous bone as a single unit. We test the protocol on a set of primate bones. In addition, we describe a set of morphological indices calculated on the topological skeleton of the cancellous bone: node density, node connectivity, trabecular angle, trabecular tortuosity, and fractal dimension. The usage of the indices is shown on a small comparative sample of primate femoral heads. Results: The isolation protocol proves reliable in isolating cancellous structures from several different bones, regardless of their shape. The indices seem to detect some functional differences, although further testing on comparative samples is needed to clarify their potential for the study of cancellous architecture. Conclusions: The approaches presented overcome some of the difficulties of trabecular bone studies. The methods presented here represent an alternative or supporting method to the existing tools available to address the biomechanics of cancellous bone.",
keywords = "bone complexity, bone segmentation, primates, skeletonization, trabecular architecture",
author = "Alessio Veneziano and Marine Cazenave and Fabio Alfieri and Daniele Panetta and Damiano Marchi",
note = "Funding Information: The authors wish to thank the curators at the various institutions where data were collected: the Natural History Museum “La Specola,” Florence (Italy); the Department of Anatomy of the University of Pretoria (South Africa); the Department of Anatomy and Histology of the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (South Africa); the Evolutionary Studies Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (South Africa); the Museum of Comparative Zoology of the Harvard University, Cambridge (USA); the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University (Japan); the R.A. Dart Collection of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (South Africa); the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington (USA); the American Museum of Natural History, New York (USA). For scanning, we thank the staff at the microfocus X‐ray tomography facility of the Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS) of the Harvard University, Cambridge (USA); the Evolutionary Studies Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (South Africa); the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington (USA); the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation SOC Ltd (Necsa), Pelindaba (South Africa); the X‐ray synchrotron radiation micro‐tomography (SR‐μXCT) at the beamline ID 17 of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble (France). We especially acknowledge P. Agnelli (Florence), F. de Beer (Pelindaba), B. Billing (Johannesburg), A. Bravin (Grenoble), J. Hoffman (Pelindaba), K. Jakata (Johannesburg), E. L'Abb{\'e} (Pretoria), R. Macchiarelli (Poitiers & Paris), A. Mazurier (Poitiers), M. Nakatsukasa (Kyoto), C. Nemoz (Grenoble), A. Oettl{\'e}, (Pretoria), M. Pina (Manchester), T. Ryan (Pennsylvania), P. Tafforeau (Grenoble), and B. Zipfel (Johannesburg). For scientific collaboration and discussion, we thank R. Macchiarelli (Poitiers; Paris), P. Sardini (Poitiers), and C. Zanolli (Bordeaux). M.C. was funded by the Erasmus Mundus programme, Bakeng se Afrika (Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, South Africa) and by the postdoctoral allocation from the Fyssen Foundation. The authors want to express their gratitude to the two anonymous reviewers who helped improving the manuscript with their useful comments. The authors have no conflict of interest to declare for this publication. Funding Information: The authors wish to thank the curators at the various institutions where data were collected: the Natural History Museum “La Specola,” Florence (Italy); the Department of Anatomy of the University of Pretoria (South Africa); the Department of Anatomy and Histology of the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (South Africa); the Evolutionary Studies Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (South Africa); the Museum of Comparative Zoology of the Harvard University, Cambridge (USA); the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University (Japan); the R.A. Dart Collection of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (South Africa); the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington (USA); the American Museum of Natural History, New York (USA). For scanning, we thank the staff at the microfocus X-ray tomography facility of the Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS) of the Harvard University, Cambridge (USA), a member of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN), which is supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF award no. ECS-0335765; the Evolutionary Studies Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (South Africa); the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington (USA); the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation SOC Ltd (Necsa), Pelindaba (South Africa); the X-ray synchrotron radiation micro-tomography (SR-μXCT) at the beamline ID 17 of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble (France). We especially acknowledge P. Agnelli (Florence), F. de Beer (Pelindaba), B. Billing (Johannesburg), A. Bravin (Grenoble), J. Hoffman (Pelindaba), K. Jakata (Johannesburg), E. L'Abb{\'e} (Pretoria), A. Mazurier (Poitiers), M. Nakatsukasa (Kyoto), C. Nemoz (Grenoble), A. Oettl{\'e}, (Pretoria), M. Pina (Manchester), T. Ryan (Pennsylvania), P. Tafforeau (Grenoble), and B. Zipfel (Johannesburg). For scientific collaboration and discussion, we thank R. Macchiarelli (Poitiers & Paris), P. Sardini (Poitiers), and C. Zanolli (Bordeaux). We also thank R. Macchiarelli for providing the M. fuscata specimen. M.C. was funded by the Erasmus Mundus programme, Bakeng se Afrika (Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, South Africa) and by the postdoctoral allocation from the Fyssen Foundation. The authors want to express their gratitude to the two anonymous reviewers who helped improving the manuscript with their useful comments. The authors have no conflict of interest to declare for this publication. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 The Authors. American Journal of Physical Anthropology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.",
year = "2021",
month = aug,
doi = "10.1002/ajpa.24272",
language = "English",
volume = "175",
pages = "920--930",
journal = "American Journal of Physical Anthropology",
issn = "0002-9483",
publisher = "Wiley-Liss Inc.",
number = "4",
}