| Time: | July 1, 2016, 10:00 a.m. (CEST) |
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| Lecturer: | Annette Birkhold | Institut für Mechanik, Universität Stuttgart |
| Venue: | VISUS Campus Vaihingen Raum -01.116 (Powerwall) Allmandring 19 |
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Abstract:
Age-related diseases, such as age-related bone loss and osteoporosis, are a major challenge in our aging society. Bone is a constantly (re)modeling organ, dynamic processes repeatedly modify its microstructure throughout life. In these processes, existing bone material is removed and replaced by newly formed new bone packages. Besides this ability to restructure, bone has the potential to adapt its mass and micro-structure to changes in its mechanical environment, to maintain its load-bearing efficiency and consequently to avoid mechanical failure. Due the dynamic characteristics of the bone restructuring processes, a method has to include the kinetics of these processes into the evaluation of bone (re)modeling. However, to date retrospective 2D manual techniques are mainly used to analyze bone remodeling. These methods do not allow for a combined direct spatio-temporal investigation of bone (re)modeling events as well as sequences, enabling the monitoring of dynamic bone restructuring over time. Thus, a concept for including the spatio-temporal character of bone (re)modeling into the analysis of bone health has to be developed and applied to more precisely answer specific biological bone research questions. Therefore, a framework has developed, including registration, segmentation, feature extraction, tracking and analysis methods, enabling an in depth evaluation of dynamic changes in bone structure. Using this method, longitudinal microCT data sets of bone acquired in experimental bone biology can be evaluated such that bone formation and resorption processes, as well as the overall (re)modeling sequences can be detected, displayed and morphologically quantified. Automated 3D methods have a great potential to improve the basic knowledge of the body and the diagnosis of patho-physiological conditions in the individual in the near future. The development, design, validation and first applications of a tomography-based medical image processing method and tool for enhanced visualization and quantification of patho-physiological dynamic structural processes in bone is presented, representing a step in the direction of a holistic, automated analysis of bone and providing new insights into dynamic micro-structural processes. The developed method and tool were validated and applied to answer specific biological research questions. Application of the developed method in several studies enabled the evaluation of quantitative (re)modeling differences on different bone surfaces. Linking this information of formation and resorption processes of all bone surfaces, the trabecular, the endocortical and the periosteal, enabled a detailed 3D time-dependent analysis of the structural dynamics and thereby allowing, for the first time, a precise quantification of the whole balances of bone restructuring. Taken together, it could be shown that it is possible to extract spatial as well as temporal information of dynamic bone restructuring processes using computational image analysis methods that are integrated in an existing experimental imaging setup using a commercially available microCT device. This constitutes a new approach to establish a more complete analysis of bone (re)modeling in experimental biology and provides the basis for an early risk detection and intervention of bone loss in human patients.
Speaker's Bio:
2003-2010: Maschinenbau-Studium Uni Stuttgart
2010-2014: PhD student: TU Berlin & Julius Wolff Institut (Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin) & Berlin Brandenburg School for Regenerative Therapies
2014-current: Post-doc: Continuum Biomechanics and Mechanobiology Group, Institut für Mechanik, Uni Stuttgart