Chapter 7: Assessment of Bone Mass and Microarchitecture in Rodents Blaine A. Christiansen and Mary L. Bouxsein

Table 1: Summary of Skeletal Imaging Modalities © 2008 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research From the Primer on the Metabolic Bone Diseases and Disorders of Mineral Metabolism, 7 th Edition.

Figure 1 Figure 1 2D imaging methods. (Left) Radiograph image of a mouse skeleton showing the capabilities of radiographs to assess skeletal morphology. Image from Faxitron X-Ray, Wheeling, IL ( (Right) Image of a mouse scanned with peripheral DXA. The head is typically excluded from measurements of body composition or BMC. The boxes represent areas of interest for analyzing BMC or BMD at the lumbar spine or the femoral diaphysis. © 2008 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research From the Primer on the Metabolic Bone Diseases and Disorders of Mineral Metabolism, 7 th Edition.

Figure 2 Figure 2 3D reconstruction of a mouse tibia scanned by μCT showing a region of interest for analysis of proximal tibial trabecular bone. A volume of trabecular bone is analyzed, excluding the surrounding cortical shell. © 2008 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research From the Primer on the Metabolic Bone Diseases and Disorders of Mineral Metabolism, 7 th Edition.

Figure 3 Figure 3 μCT images of representative 2-day-old C57BL/6 mouse pups scanned using voxel sizes of either 10.5 or 21.0 μm. Bar plots show the sensitivity of measurements of bone volume and average mineral density to variations in voxel size. (Reprinted with permission of Wiley-Liss, a subsidiary of John Wiley & Sons, from Guldberg RE, Lin AS, Coleman R, Robertson G, Duvall C 2004 Microcomputed tomography imaging of skeletal development and growth. Birth Defects Res C Embryo Today 72:250–255) From the Primer on the Metabolic Bone Diseases and Disorders of Mineral Metabolism, 7 th Edition.

Figure 4 Figure 4 Images of the distal femur of a 24-wk-old female C57BL/6 mouse showing the sensitivity of μCT analysis to selected threshold values. © 2008 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research From the Primer on the Metabolic Bone Diseases and Disorders of Mineral Metabolism, 7 th Edition.

Figure 5 Figure 5 Volumes of interest at the distal femur of a 24-wk-old female C57BL/6 mouse (threshold = 250). Evaluation of epiphyseal trabecular bone (left) will typically yield a much higher BV/TV than evaluation of metaphyseal trabecular bone. Likewise, a volume of interest limited to the metaphyseal trabecular bone immediately adjacent to the growth plate (center) will yield a higher BV/TV than a larger volume of interest that includes a large amount of “empty space” with few trabeculae (right). © 2008 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research From the Primer on the Metabolic Bone Diseases and Disorders of Mineral Metabolism, 7 th Edition.

Figure 6 Figure 6 μCT images showing damage sustained by cyclic compression of a rat ulna. Crack extent, length, and number increased with increasing levels of fatigue displacement. This figure was published in Uthgenannt BA, Silva MJ 2007 Use of the rat forelimb compression model to create discrete levels of bone damage in vivo. J Biomech 40:317–324,(38) Copyright Elsevier. From the Primer on the Metabolic Bone Diseases and Disorders of Mineral Metabolism, 7 th Edition.

Figure 7 Figure 7 Images showing typical trabecular bone loss at the proximal tibia of a 30-wk-old Wistar rat after OVX, assessed by in vivo μCT at weeks 0, 2, and 4. Images courtesy of J.E.M. Brouwers, Eindhoven University of Technology. © 2008 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research From the Primer on the Metabolic Bone Diseases and Disorders of Mineral Metabolism, 7 th Edition.

Figure 8 Figure 8 Cortical bone from the femoral mid-diaphysis of mice measured with Synchrotron Radiation Nano-Computed Tomography (SR-nCT) at 700-nm nominal resolution. The top row shows the lateral cortical mid-diaphysis of a mouse femur in a transversal (A) and sagittal (B) view. The bottom row is a reconstruction of the canal network and osteocyte lacunae within the same lateral cortical bone. Figure originally published in Schneider P, Stauber M, Voide R, Stampanoni M, Donahue LR, Muller R 2007 Ultrastructural properties in cortical bone vary greatly in two inbred strains of mice as assessed by synchrotron light based micro- and nano-CT. J Bone Miner Res 22: 1557– © 2008 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research From the Primer on the Metabolic Bone Diseases and Disorders of Mineral Metabolism, 7 th Edition.