Osteoporosis is a debilitating disease, which will be diagnosed in 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men. The mineral density of the bone decreases and the propensity of people to have fracture increases, which impairs their mobility and increases the mortality rate up to 10% within one year. In osteoporosis, the accumulation of micro-cracks in bones are not healed as fast as in younger people and this could lead to fatigue fractures. This research is aimed to analyse the effects of microcracks formation in bone from osteoporotic and healthy patients and the influence on osteoclasts and osteoblasts. Microcracks are going to be generated on the bone cores from the bovines/human bones from different donors. In addition, we would also assess the functionality of the bone cells and their influence on bone resorption by specialised cells the osteoclasts. When the balance of bone formation and bone resorption are negative, especially in post-menopausal women, loss of bone mass occurs which is called osteoporosis. This then leads to a higher tendency of bone fractures. To understand the pathogenesis of bone fracture even broader, we are going to evaluate the significance of microcracks in the bone and its contributing factor to bone resorption and fractures. In such, we have to carefully construct realistic models for both osteoporotic and healthy conditions to have a complex environment similar to in vivo. Later, we would monitor the cell activities and characterise with histology analysis on the bone samples.
