# Trabecular bone microarchitecture of the radial and femoral distal metaphyses during the period of locomotor behavior development

Antony Colombo, Sharon Kuo, Gregorio Marchiori, Melania Maglio, Lucia

Martini, Milena Fini, Matteo Bettuzzi, Maria Pia Morigi, Alex Ireland,

Timothy M Ryan, et al.

► To cite this version:

Antony Colombo, Sharon Kuo, Gregorio Marchiori, Melania Maglio, Lucia Martini, et al. Trabecular bone microarchitecture of the radial and femoral distal metaphyses during the period of locomotor behavior development. 91st Annual Meeting of the AABA, Mar 2022, Denver, CO, United States. Program of the 91st Annual Meeting of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists, 177 (S73), pp.35, 2022, 10.1002/ajpa.24514. http://05064604

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# Trabecular bone microarchitecture of the radial and femoral distal metaphyses during the period of locomotor behavior development.

Antony Colombo¹,²,³,⁴, Sharon Kuo³, Gregorio Marchiori⁵, Melanie Maglio⁵, Lucia Martini⁵, Milena Fini⁵, Matteo Bettuzzi⁶, Maria Pia Morigi⁶, Alex Ireland⁴, Timothy M. Ryan³, Maria Giovanna Belcastro¹

¹Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, ² Department of Life and Earth Sciences, EPHE-PSL University, ³Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, ⁴Musculoskeletal Science and Sports Medicine Research Centre, Department of Life Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, ⁵Complex Structure Surgical Sciences and Technologies, IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, ⁶Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna.

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Contact: antony.colombo@ephe.psl.eu

91st Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado - 23-26 March, 2022

## INTRODUCTION

* Trabecular bone microarchitecture (TBMA) adapts to variations in loading experienced during locomotion [1].

* TBMA is particularly useful in the study of **primate locomotor behavior** [2], but structural changes related to the development of human locomotion are not fully understood.

* The **crawling phase** of human ontogeny is an important step before bipedal walking in children [3], which leads to biomechanical modification on the **wrist and knee** for a relatively short period of time.

This study aims to characterize changes in TBMA in upper and lower limbs in a sample of juvenile humans.

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 1 – Radius and femur: anatomical region of interest</figcaption></figure>

<caption>Fig. 2 – Image processing: from the original µCT-scan to the usable image for trabecular parameters quantification (resolution of 18 µm, individual F15 – 13.1-month-old female).</caption>

## MATERIAL & METHODS

### SAMPLE

* 26 children, [0-38] months old, from the Certosa identified skeletons collection, Univ. Bologna [4]

* **Distal radial and femoral metaphysis** (Fig. 1) *without bone pathological signs (20 radii, 25 femurs).*

### µCT-SCANS

* Resolution of **9 or 18 µm** (bone size dependent)

* SkyScan Brüker 1276 - acquisition protocol

* filter: 0.5 Al, source voltage: 70 kV, source current: 141 µA, exposure time: 495 ms, rotation step: 0.5°, 360°
Rotation mode, frame averaging: 3.

### ANALYSIS PROTOCOL

* **RDN segmentation** [5]

* **Medtool 4.4** image processing (Fig. 2) & parameters quantified [6, 7]: bone volume fraction (BV/TV), degree of anisotropy (DA) and trabecular thickness (Tb.Th).

## RESULTS

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /></figure>

* Variation in TBMA parameters was observed **for both radial** (BV/TV) and **femoral** (BV/TV, DA, Tb.Th) metaphyses (Fig. 3).

* **With advancing age**, the **radius** at first showed a **homogenous** distribution of **BV/TV** (Fig. 4 – M39, F22); then, a more **concentric pattern** with higher values medially (Fig. 4 – M12); and finally, a postero-medial **gradient of moderate values**.

* Simultaneously in the **femur**:

* Tb.Th and BV/TV showed **no real differences** between medial and lateral sides (Fig. 4 – M39) and the TBMA was more isotropic at the periphery (Fig. 4 – M39).

* Then, BV/TV, Tb.Th and DA showed **differences** between lateral and medial sides (Fig. 4 – F22, M12).

* Finally, lateral and medial sides presented **high and similar** BV/TV and Tb.Th, and the bone is more isotropic at the midline (Fig. 4 – M12).

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 3 (left) – Comparison of the quantified microarchitectural parameters per age group (A: [0-9], B: [9-18], C: ≥ 18 months old) between radius and femur metaphysis samples (Wilcoxon non-parametric test: *p<0.05, **p<0.01).</figcaption></figure>

<caption>Fig. 4 (top) – BV/TV, DA and Tb.Th. 3D maps of the distal radius and femur metaphyses, one individual for each age group (M39, 0-month-old male, for group A, illustrates very well TBMA organization at birth; F22, 9-month-old female for the first half of group B; M12, 15.5-month-old male for the second half of group B; M11, 23.5-month-old male for group C).</caption>

## DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION

* These **patterns** of TBMA variation may relate to the acquisition and maturation of bipedal walking and the associated changes in loading as children transition through stages including pre-locomotion, crawling, and bipedalism.

**REFERENCES** [1] Frost, H.M., 1990. Skeletal structural adaptations to mechanical usage (SATMU): 2. Redefining Wolff's law: The remodeling problem. *Anat. Rec.* 226, 414-422. [2] Ryan, T.M., Shaw, C.N., 2012. Unique Suites of Trabecular Bone Features Characterize Locomotor Behavior in Human and Non-Human Anthropoid Primates. *PLoS ONE* 7, e41037. [3] Adolph, K.E., Karasik, L.B., Tamis-Lemonda, C.S., 2009. Motor skill, in: Bornstein, M.H. (Ed.), *Handbook of Cultural Developmental Science*. Taylor and Francis Press, pp. 61-88. [4] Belcastro, M.G., Bonfiglioli, B., Pedrosi, M.E., Zuppello, M., Tanganelli, V., Mariotti, V., 2017. The History and Composition of the Identified Human Skeletal Collection of the Certosa Cemetery (Bologna, Italy, 19th–20th Century). *Int. J. Osteoarchaeol.* 27, 912-925. [5] Kuo, S., Demars, L.J., Yazdani, A., Cherukuri, V., Sun, Y., Colombo, A., Monga, V., Ryan, T.M., 2022. Applications of a regularized deep network micro-CT image auto-segmentation approach to morphological data. *Poster presentation 91st AABA meeting, session 2, March 24, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6376199.* [6] Gross, T., Kivell, T.L., Skinner, M.M., Nguyen, N.H., Pahr, D.H., 2014. A CT-image-based framework for the holistic analysis of cortical and trabecular bone morphology. *Palaeontol. Electron.* 17. [7] DeMars, L.J.D., Stephens, N.B., Saers, J.P.P., Gordon, A., Stock, J.T., Ryan, T.M., 2021. Using point clouds to investigate the relationship between trabecular bone phenotype and behavior: An example utilizing the human calcaneus. *Am. J. Hum. Biol.* 33, e23468.

**FUNDING** This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions grant agreement N° 886380.

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ALMA MATER STUDIORUM
A.D. 1088

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PennState

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Manchester
Metropolitan
University

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Marie
Skłodowska-Curie
Actions

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École Pratique
des Hautes Études

PSL

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