Scientists reveal how osteoporosis and Covid-19 affect bones structure
|The evolution of micro-scale bone damages into critical fracture is still not a fully understood process. Several data seem to confirm the hypothesis that a key role is played by the so-called lacunae, micron-sized ellipsoidal pores that contain osteocytes cell bodies. However, the characterisation of the lacunar system and the detection of early signs of bone alteration aren’t trivial operations to perform.
Moreover, the application of various advanced investigation techniques (such as 3D imaging) is hampered by the low number of osteocyte lacunae that can be studied per sample. To overcome this barrier, Dr. Federica Buccino (Politecnico di Milano), CERIC PhD fellow Lorenzo D’Amico and colleagues, including research coordinator Prof. Laura Maria Vergani (Politecnico di Milano), applied novel artificial intelligence (AI)-based approach for automatic large-scale osteocyte lacunar detection and investigation with synchrotron image-guided failure assessment. This procedure can also be particularly useful in assessing the long-term damage induced by the Covid-19 pandemic, since a slowdown in the bone formation processes is hypothesized as a direct outcome of the virus infection. Using instruments available at the Synchrotron Radiation for Medical Physics (SYRMEP) at the CERIC Italian partner facility in Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, researchers studied the femoral head to demonstrate four clinical hypotheses. They could then demonstrate that micro-scale bone alterations and adaptations to external mechanical loadings could result as an early sign of pathology, both in case of osteoporosis and Covid-19 induced changes.
These outcomes help to more accurately describe the transition from micro to macro fractures, and could then be applied to improve already existing clinical and diagnostic tools.
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