Patent ID: 8082135
Filing Date: 2011-12-20
Classification: G09B

Abstract:
1. A method of modeling bone structure, comprising: (a) obtaining a bone specimen from a subject and identifying at least one osteon embedded therein; (b) recording a radial direction of the osteon; (c) identifying each lamella of the osteon as a bright or extinct lamella; (d) isolating at least one lamellar specimen from the osteon by micro-dissection and flattening the lamellar specimen; (e) identifying a plurality of planes of focus throughout a thickness of the lamellar specimen, wherein the planes of focus are relative to the radial direction of the osteon; (f) for each plane of focus throughout the thickness of the lamellar specimen relative to the radial direction of the osteon, observing and recording angles of orientation of collagen fibrillar elements present in the plane of focus for specimen using confocal microscopy and categorizing each collagen fibrillar element as having a transverse, longitudinal, oblique acute, or oblique obtuse orientation with respect to a lamellar length based on an angle of orientation recorded for the collagen fibrillar element; (g) for each plane of focus throughout the thickness of the lamellar specimen, determining a distribution of each category of collagen fibrillar element orientation as a percentage of a total number of collagen fibrillar elements observed; and (h) modeling the collagen fibrillar element orientation distributions for the planes of focus throughout the thickness of the lamellar specimen into a three-dimensional model of a bone structure.