New centre to change our understanding of bone strength

Every year, thousands of people suffer bone fractures, even though their bone mass is not necessarily significantly low. This suggests that we still do not fully understand what factors determine whether a bone withstands loading or breaks.

With the establishment of the Danish Structural Imaging and Biomechanics Analysis Resource (DanSIBAR), researchers will be able to investigate bone and other tissues with a new degree of precision.

The centre will be anchored at the Department of Clinical Research at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense and developed as an advanced research infrastructure that brings together 3D imaging, applied strength measurements and molecular analyses on a single, integrated infrastructure platform.

According to Alexander Rauch, Associate Professor at the Department of Clinical Research and project lead, research has for many years had a blind spot:

- For many years, we have been able to measure the amount of bone. But we are in need of a more detailed picture of how bone responds to loading and what happens in the areas where bone is weakened.

He points out that this link between structure, strength and biological processes is crucial to understanding why some bones fracture more easily than others.

When measurements do not tell the whole story

Today, fracture risk is assessed primarily on the basis of bone mineral density. However, a considerable proportion of fractures occur in individuals where the fracture cannot be explained by low bone density alone.

Other factors such as the microstructure and material properties of bone are suggested to play a greater role than has previously been possible to document.

DanSIBAR will make it possible to analyse precisely this by combining multiple technologies within the same sample. Researchers will, among other things, be able to:

• carry out high-resolution 3D imaging of the tissue’s internal structure
• test how much mechanical load the tissue can withstand
• extract microscopic regions and analyse proteins and gene activity

What is special about the platform is that these analyses can be directly linked. In other words, researchers can examine whether the areas that appear weak in a highly resolved 3D scan are also those where biological processes have changed.

Eva Maria Wölfel, biomedical engineer and co-applicant for DanSIBAR, emphasises that this integration adds relevant additional knowledge:

– When we can link what we see in a 3D scan with the tissue’s actual strength and the molecular changes in precisely the same area, we gain a far more accurate picture of fracture mechanisms.

She expects this to provide a stronger foundation for both risk assessment and the development of treatments.

Perspectives beyond osteoporosis

Although osteoporosis is an obvious field of application, the perspectives extend further. Many diseases affect tissue structure, material, and mechanical properties, even though there is currently only limited possibilities to assess these properties clinically.

The technology can therefore also be applied in research into other bone-related fields such as the development of implants, but also other pathologies such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, and ageing processes. All these areas benefit from a deeper understanding on tissue-level structure and function.

For Alexander Rauch, the ambition is clear:

– The ambition is to create a coherent understanding of how tissue structure is linked to function. This knowledge is essential if we are to develop more targeted treatments.