Each year in the USA alone up to 1.5 million age-related bone fractures occur and bone fractures are expected to increase in the coming years due to the current unprecedented growth in the elderly population. Thus, the nation is entering a looming medical and economic crisis threatening to weaken America’s quality of life and prosperity. Medical treatments have focused on reducing fracture risk by maximizing bone quantity. Yet, outcomes have stalled at a modest level of impact on reducing population fracture risk. There is a need for new strategies to prevent age-related bone fragility. This Leading Engineering for America's Prosperity, Health, and Infrastructure (LEAP-HI) award supports fundamental research on transformational changes in reducing fracture risk through bone hydration. The concept of enhanced bone hydration is a novel and promising pathway to reduce bone fragility that seeks to improve the quality of bone tissue by combining expertise in materials engineering, physics, mechanics, biology, and biomedical sciences. This approach underpins a sustained interdisciplinary approach for translational impact that provides educational opportunities for a broad range of learners. The team will work with the specific at-risk age group of the population in outreach engagements.
Enhanced bone hydration is a promising pathway to reduce bone fragility. This approach leverages tissue properties that are independent of bone mass or density. Yet, there are several scientific barriers to overcome to realize this approach. This award supports research on the biomechanisms through which hydration alters local and tissue-level deformation and fragility. Three key research questions are addressed: (1) How can in-depth understanding of bone fracture toughness guide deployment of hydration as a therapeutic approach to increase bone fracture resilience? (2) What are the differences in biomechanical properties of water-hydrated bone vs bone hydrated under pharmacologically modulated conditions? (3) How can current clinical prediction models for bone fracture analysis become predictive under consideration of hydration conditions? Research will be conducted on bone tissue specimens that will be subjected to ex vivo pharmacologically treatment to modulate hydration. Bone microstructure, mineralization and degree and type of tissue hydration will be measured and correlated to the deformation and fracture behavior bone in the control and modulated state and ex vivo finding will be extended to whole bone and in vivo conditions.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
