title: A quantitative collagen fibers orientation assessment using birefringence measurements: calibration and application to human osteons.
abstract: Even though mechanical properties depend strongly on the arrangement of collagen fibers in mineralized tissues, it is not yet well resolved. Only a few semi-quantitative evaluations of the fiber arrangement in bone, like spectroscopic techniques or circularly polarized light microscopy methods are available. In this study the out-of-plane collagen arrangement angle was calibrated to the linear birefringence of a longitudinally fibered mineralized turkey leg tendon cut at variety of angles to the main axis. The calibration curve was applied to human cortical bone osteons to quantify the out-of-plane collagen fibers arrangement. The proposed calibration curve is normalized to sample thickness and wavelength of the probing light to enable a universally applicable quantitative assessment. This approach may improve our understanding of the fibrillar structure of bone and its implications on mechanical properties.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Lightweight Design and Structural Biomechanics, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria. ewa.spiesz@ilsb.tuwien.ac.at
authors.forename: Ewa M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Spiesz
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kaminsky
authors.forename: Philippe K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Zysset
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001718:Birefringence; D002113:Calcification, Physiologic; D002138:Calibration; D024022:Fibrillar Collagens / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D006253:Haversian System / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D006801:Humans; D014422:Turkeys / Q000033:anatomy & histology
chemical_list: D024022:Fibrillar Collagens