Maintaining bone health in the lumbar spine: routine activities alone are not enough
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Favier, Clement
McGregor, Alison
Phillips, Andrew
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Public health organisations typically recommend a minimum amount of moderate intensity activities such as walking or cycling for two and a half hours a week, combined with some more demanding physical activity on at least 2 days a week to maintain a healthy musculoskeletal condition. For populations at risk of bone loss in the lumbar spine, these guidelines are particularly relevant. However, an understanding of how these different activities are influential in maintaining vertebral bone health is lacking. A predictive structural finite element modelling approach using a strain-driven algorithm was developed to study mechanical stimulus and bone adaptation in the lumbar spine under various physiological loading conditions. These loading conditions were obtained with a previously developed full-body musculoskeletal model for a range of daily living activities representative of a healthy lifestyle. Activities of interest for the simulations include moderate intensity activities involving limited spine movements in all directions such as, walking, stair ascent and descent, sitting down and standing up, and more demanding activities with large spine movements during reaching and lifting tasks. For a combination of moderate and more demanding activities, the finite element model predicted a trabecular and cortical bone architecture representative of a healthy vertebra. When more demanding activities were removed from the simulations, areas at risk of bone degradation were observed at all lumbar levels in the anterior part of the vertebral body, the transverse processes and the spinous process. Moderate intensity activities alone were found to be insufficient in providing a mechanical stimulus to prevent bone degradation. More demanding physical activities are essential to maintain bone health in the lumbar spine.
Date Issued
2021-05-19
Date Acceptance
2021-04-14
Citation
Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 2021, 9
ISSN
2296-4185
Publisher
Frontiers Media
Journal / Book Title
Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology
Volume
9
Copyright Statement
© 2021 Favier, McGregor and Phillips. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
License URL
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
lumbar vertebra
bone adaptation
structural finite element analysis
predictive modelling
strain-driven optimisation
sedentary behaviour
HUMAN TRABECULAR BONE
CORTICAL BONE
OLDER-ADULTS
FORCES
MASS
MECHANOSTAT
ADAPTATION
SIMULATION
ROTATIONS
THICKNESS
bone adaptation
lumbar vertebra
predictive modelling
sedentary behaviour
strain-driven optimisation
structural finite element analysis
0699 Other Biological Sciences
0903 Biomedical Engineering
1004 Medical Biotechnology
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 661837