Direct Assessment of Rabbit Cortical Bone Basic Multicellular Unit Longitudinal Erosion Rate: A 4D Synchrotron‐Based Approach

Cortical bone remodeling is carried out by basic multicellular units (BMUs), which couple resorption to formation. Although fluorochrome labeling has facilitated study of BMU formative parameters since the 1960s, some resorptive parameters, including the longitudinal erosion rate (LER), have remained beyond reach of direct measurement. Indeed, our only insights into this spatiotemporal parameter of BMU behavior come from classical studies that indirectly inferred LER. Here, we demonstrate a 4D in vivo method to directly measure LER through in‐line phase contrast synchrotron imaging. The tibias of rabbits (n = 15) dosed daily with parathyroid hormone were first imaged in vivo (synchrotron micro‐CT; day 15) and then ex vivo 14 days later (conventional micro‐CT; day 29). Mean LER assessed by landmarking the co‐registered scans was 23.69 ± 1.73 μm/d. This novel approach holds great promise for the direct study of the spatiotemporal coordination of bone remodeling, its role in diseases such as osteoporosis, as well as related treatments. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR).