| Abstract Scope |
Bone is the major component of the human body, operating as its protective load-bearing framework. Composition and structure of the bone over many length-scales are responsible for its strength, toughness, ability to adapt to mechanical loads. Aging, disease and abnormal loads on bone alter its composition and disrupt its hierarchical structure, affecting bone’s mechanical environment and biological properties, thus increasing its vulnerability to fractures and deformities. We assessed how bone resistance to fracture changes with skeletal growth in healthy and in osteogenesis imperfecta (OI or brittle bone disease). We examined bone toughening mechanisms, structure, composition and mechanics at multiple length scales, in order to determine how small changes at the molecular level in osteogenesis imperfecta drastically ramifies at larger length scales, resulting in brittle bone with a fragility that changes during skeletal growth. |