title: The effects of replacing collagen fibers with carbon nanotubes on the rate of bone remodeling process.
abstract: Application of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) instead of collagen fibers (CFs) in bone tissue is one of the proposed avenues for the enhancement of bone's mechanical properties. The mechanical behavior improvement caused by such a replacement is somehow guaranteed because of the superior mechanical properties of CNTs compared to those of CFs. But on the other side, bone is a very active and dynamic tissue, which is maintained through a lifelong coupled process of resorption and formation in order to reach an optimal configuration. Hence, the well accepted fact of the bone remodeling dependency on mechanical stimuli besides the differences in mechanical behavior of CNTs and CFs under loading can encourage one to hypothesize that such a replacement would cause an imbalance in the normal rate of bone remodeling process. Results of our finite element analysis indicate that the application of CNTs instead of CFs can cause a significant reduction in strain energy density, assumed here as the mechanical stimulus to initiate the bone remodeling process. Our results also show that this replacement may change the strain energy distribution within the bone. Based on a semi-mechanistic bone remodeling theory, it is speculated that this alteration in strain energy distribution in artificial bone can destabilize normal bone remodeling process, and therefore it is likely to cause some abnormalities in bone's mechanical and biological functions.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Department, Semnan University, Semnan, 35131-19111, Iran.
authors.forename: Nima
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jamilpour
authors.forename: Abdolhosein
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fereidoon
authors.forename: Gholamreza
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rouhi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D016723:Bone Remodeling / Q000502:physiology*; D018786:Bone Substitutes / Q000737:chemistry*; D003094:Collagen / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology*; D017886:Durapatite / Q000737:chemistry; D055119:Elastic Modulus; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D036103:Nanotechnology; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D023822:Tissue Engineering
chemical_list: D018786:Bone Substitutes; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D003094:Collagen; D017886:Durapatite