Bone Abstracts

Osteoporosis (OP) is characterised by low bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration of the bone tissue, leading to enhanced bone fragility and increased fracture risk. OP causes an imbalance in the cellular remodelling process thus inducing changes in the bone’s mineral and organic phases that are responsible for its strength and stiffness. The purpose of this study is to investigate the early effects of OP progression on the arrangement of bone tissue mineral phase by performing quantitative backscattered electron imaging (qBEI) to evaluate the bone mineral density distribution (BMDD) in osteoporotic Balb/c mice (ovariectomized-OVX) and controls (Sham operated). Mice vertebrae (L3) with 0.5; 1; 2 and 3 months of disease duration were evaluated using a well-established method. The following BMDD parameters were measured: Ca_MEAN; (wt.%Ca); Ca_WIDTH, (Δwt.% Ca); Ca_LOW, (% bone area), this parameter also corresponds to the amount of bone area passing primary mineralization and Ca_HIGH, (% bone area), also corresponds to the amount of bone area having a fully mineralized bone matrix. Our results revealed a variation in the measured BMDD parameters particularly the Ca_LOW and Ca_HIGH, since the initial phase of the disease where they are shown to be significantly reduced in the OVX mice as a function of disease duration confirming that OP causes a disarrangement in the mineralization density distribution Table 1.