# Variations of the trabecular bone microarchitecture through the period of locomotor behaviour development of a late 19th century post-industrial Italian population

Antony Colombo, Sharon Kuo, Gregorio Marchiori, Melania Maglio, Lucia Martini, Milena Fini, Matteo Bettuzzi, Maria Pia Morigi, Alex Ireland, Timothy M Ryan, et al.

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## To cite this version:

Antony Colombo, Sharon Kuo, Gregorio Marchiori, Melania Maglio, Lucia Martini, et al. Variations of the trabecular bone microarchitecture through the period of locomotor behaviour development of a late 19th century post-industrial Italian population. 10th International Conference of Children's Bone Health, Jul 2022, Dublin, Ireland. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Children's Bone Health, 6 (S1), pp.105, 2022, 10.1002/jbm4.10676. hal-05064516

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10TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
ON CHILDREN'S BONE HEALTH

# Variations of the trabecular bone microarchitecture through the period of locomotor behaviour development of a late 19th century post-industrial Italian population.

Antony Colombo¹,²,³,⁴, Sharon Kuo³, Gregorio Marchiori⁵, Melania Maglio⁵, Lucia Martini⁵, Milena Fini⁵, Matteo Bettuzzi², Maria Pia Morigi², Alex Ireland⁴, Timothy M. Ryan³, Maria Giovanna Belcastro²

¹Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Pessac, France. ²University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. ³Pennsylvania State University, State College, USA. ⁴Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom. ⁵Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Bologna, Italy

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antony.colombo@ephe.psl.eu

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@apjcw1

## INTRODUCTION

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

* TBMA variations is useful in the study of **locomotor behaviour** [2] but still misunderstood during the development of human locomotion.

* The **crawling phase** is an important step before bipedal walking in children [3] leading to biomechanical modification on the **wrist and knee**.

* **Rickets** due to a severe vitamin D deficiencies is one of the most common diseases identified in archaeology, especially interesting for period of cultural transition, as the **industrialisation** [4].

This study aims to characterise trabecular changes in radius and femur during locomotor development in normal and pathological contexts.

## MATERIAL & METHODS

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* **Sample:** 46 children (25 girls, 14.3±9.7 months), **distal radial and femoral metaphysis** (Fig. 1), Certosa identified skeletons collection, Univ. Bologna [5].

* **µCT-scans:** **9 or 18 µm** resolution, SkyScan Brüker 1276 (0.5 Al, 70 kV, 141 µA, 495 ms, 0.5°, 360° rotation mode, frame averaging of 3).

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

## RESULTS

### 1. Paleopathological diagnosis (Fig. 3) : 20 children with signs consistent with rickets.

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 3 – Individual F9 (13.3 m.o., female) with rickets. Macroscopic bone signs: [a] radius with a flared distal metaphysis, [b] bowed tibia and fibula with deformed metaphyses, [c] deformed ribs with enlarged and flared metaphyses. [d] Radius µCT-scan slice from the distal metaphysis (resolution: 18 µm).</figcaption></figure>

### 2. TBMA variations in the non-pathological sample (n=26) : comparison between radius and femur metaphyses (Fig. 4 and Fig. 5)

* TBMA varies in **both radial** (BV/TV) and **femoral** (BV/TV, DA, Tb.Th) metaphyses (Fig. 4, 5).

<figure><img src="image_8.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 4 – Comparison of the quantified microarchitectural parameters for the femoral and radial metaphyses 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, ***p<0.001).</figcaption></figure>

### 3. TBMA variations in the pathological and non-pathological samples : comparison between radial metaphyses (Fig. 6 and Fig. 7)

* Pathological radii with **lower BV/TV** and **more variable DA** for the 3 age groups. Lower **Tb.Sp** and **Tb.Th** for the youngest age group and significantly **higher** for the age group B (Fig. 6).

* TBMA organisation (Fig. 7) in the pathological bone similar to the **younger individuals** from the normal sample. High Tb.Th values and BV/TV concentric organization for the non pathological group B the pathological group C. Highly variable DA organization for the pathological sample.

<figure><img src="image_9.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 6 – Comparison of the quantified microarchitectural parameters for the pathological and non-pathological radial metaphyses per age group (A: [0-9], B: [9-18], C: ≥ 18 months old) between normal and pathological samples (Wilcoxon non-parametric test: *p<0.05, ** p<0.01, ***p<0.001).</figcaption></figure>

* **With the age**, in the **radius**: 1/ **homogenous** distribution of **BV/TV** (Fig. 5 - M39); 2/, a more **concentric pattern** with medial high values (Fig. 5 - M12); and 3/ a postero-medial **gradient** of moderate values. In the **femur**: 1/ **no differences** for Tb.Th and BV/TV between medial and lateral sides (Fig. 5 - M39); 2/ **differences** between lateral and medial sides for BV/TV, Tb.Th and DA (Fig. 5 - F22, M12); 3/ lateral and medial sides with **high and similar** BV/TV and Tb.Th, and DA higher laterally (Fig. 5 - M11).

<figure><img src="image_10.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 5 – BV/TV, DA and Tb.Th. 3D maps of the distal radius and femur metaphyses (inferior views), 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).</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_11.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 7 – Comparison of BV/TV, DA, and Tb.Th. 3D maps of a non-pathological and a pathological radius from children of similar age from each age group. (non pathological: group A - F17, 7 m.o., female; group B - F15, 13.1 m.o., Female; group C - M11, 23.7 m.o., male. Pathological: group A - F54, 6 m.o., female; group B - F9, 13.3 m.o., female; Group C - M3, 23.2 m.o., male).</figcaption></figure>

## DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION

* **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 *et al.*, 2009. Motor skill, in: Bornstein, M.H. (Ed.), *Handbook of Cultural Developmental Science*. Taylor and Francis Press, pp. 61-88. [4] Brickley, M., Ives, R., 2008. *The bioarchaeology of metabolic bone disease*. Elsevier, Academic Press, Oxford. [5] Belcastro, M.G. *et al.*, 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. [6] Kuo, S. *et al.*, 2022. Applications of a regularized deep network micro-CT image auto-segmentation approach to morphological data. *Poster, 91st AABA meeting, March 24, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6376199*. [7] Gross, T *et al.*, 2014. A CT-image-based framework for the holistic analysis of cortical and trabecular bone morphology. *Palaeontol. Electron.* 17. [8] Agarwal, A. *et al.*, 2009. Rickets: A cause of delayed walking in toddlers. *Indian J. Pediatr.* 76, 269-272.

* **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.

* Even though locomotion studies through TBMA analysis are more common, e.g. [2] in the last decade, **structural changes related to the development of human locomotion are not fully understood**, especially in a pathological context, which can impair bone growth and locomotion.

* Microarchitectural patterns in the radius and femur in the non-pathological sample may reflect the acquisition and maturation of bipedal walking. This specific phase of development is a key period of development of children locomotor abilities [3].

* The pattern observed in the pathological sample confirms a degraded trabecular network, perhaps also due to delayed locomotor development as rickets mainly affects infants aged 6-24 months and is known to **delay** the psychomotor development [8].

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