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The Hydration State of Bone Tissue Affects Contrast in Neutron Tomographic Images

Neutron tomography has emerged as a promising imaging technique for specific applications in bone research. Neutrons have a strong interaction with hydrogen, which is abundant in biological tissues, and they can penetrate through dense materials such as metallic implants. However, in addition to lon...

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Autores principales: Törnquist, Elin, Le Cann, Sophie, Tengattini, Alessandro, Helfen, Lukas, Kok, Joeri, Hall, Stephen A., Isaksson, Hanna
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9247154/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35782510
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2022.911866
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author Törnquist, Elin
Le Cann, Sophie
Tengattini, Alessandro
Helfen, Lukas
Kok, Joeri
Hall, Stephen A.
Isaksson, Hanna
author_facet Törnquist, Elin
Le Cann, Sophie
Tengattini, Alessandro
Helfen, Lukas
Kok, Joeri
Hall, Stephen A.
Isaksson, Hanna
author_sort Törnquist, Elin
collection PubMed
description Neutron tomography has emerged as a promising imaging technique for specific applications in bone research. Neutrons have a strong interaction with hydrogen, which is abundant in biological tissues, and they can penetrate through dense materials such as metallic implants. However, in addition to long imaging times, two factors have led to challenges in running in situ mechanical characterization experiments on bone tissue using neutron tomography: 1) the high water content in specimens reduces the visibility of internal trabecular structures; 2) the mechanical properties of bone are dependent on the hydration state of the tissue, with drying being reported to cause increased stiffness and brittleness. This study investigates the possibility of improving image quality in terms of neutron transmission and contrast between material phases by drying and rehydrating in heavy water. Rat tibiae and trabecular bovine bone plugs were imaged with neutron tomography at different hydration states and mechanical testing of the bone plugs was carried out to assess effects of drying and rehydration on the mechanical properties of bone. From analysis of image histograms, it was found that drying reduced the contrast between bone and soft tissue, but the contrast was restored with rehydration. Contrast-to-noise ratios and line profiles revealed that the contrast between bone tissue and background was reduced with increasing rehydration duration but remained sufficient for identifying internal structures as long as no free liquid was present inside the specimen. The mechanical analysis indicated that the proposed fluid exchange protocol had no adverse effects on the mechanical properties.
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spelling pubmed-92471542022-07-02 The Hydration State of Bone Tissue Affects Contrast in Neutron Tomographic Images Törnquist, Elin Le Cann, Sophie Tengattini, Alessandro Helfen, Lukas Kok, Joeri Hall, Stephen A. Isaksson, Hanna Front Bioeng Biotechnol Bioengineering and Biotechnology Neutron tomography has emerged as a promising imaging technique for specific applications in bone research. Neutrons have a strong interaction with hydrogen, which is abundant in biological tissues, and they can penetrate through dense materials such as metallic implants. However, in addition to long imaging times, two factors have led to challenges in running in situ mechanical characterization experiments on bone tissue using neutron tomography: 1) the high water content in specimens reduces the visibility of internal trabecular structures; 2) the mechanical properties of bone are dependent on the hydration state of the tissue, with drying being reported to cause increased stiffness and brittleness. This study investigates the possibility of improving image quality in terms of neutron transmission and contrast between material phases by drying and rehydrating in heavy water. Rat tibiae and trabecular bovine bone plugs were imaged with neutron tomography at different hydration states and mechanical testing of the bone plugs was carried out to assess effects of drying and rehydration on the mechanical properties of bone. From analysis of image histograms, it was found that drying reduced the contrast between bone and soft tissue, but the contrast was restored with rehydration. Contrast-to-noise ratios and line profiles revealed that the contrast between bone tissue and background was reduced with increasing rehydration duration but remained sufficient for identifying internal structures as long as no free liquid was present inside the specimen. The mechanical analysis indicated that the proposed fluid exchange protocol had no adverse effects on the mechanical properties. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-06-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9247154/ /pubmed/35782510 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2022.911866 Text en Copyright © 2022 Törnquist, Le Cann, Tengattini, Helfen, Kok, Hall and Isaksson. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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.
spellingShingle Bioengineering and Biotechnology
Törnquist, Elin
Le Cann, Sophie
Tengattini, Alessandro
Helfen, Lukas
Kok, Joeri
Hall, Stephen A.
Isaksson, Hanna
The Hydration State of Bone Tissue Affects Contrast in Neutron Tomographic Images
title The Hydration State of Bone Tissue Affects Contrast in Neutron Tomographic Images
title_full The Hydration State of Bone Tissue Affects Contrast in Neutron Tomographic Images
title_fullStr The Hydration State of Bone Tissue Affects Contrast in Neutron Tomographic Images
title_full_unstemmed The Hydration State of Bone Tissue Affects Contrast in Neutron Tomographic Images
title_short The Hydration State of Bone Tissue Affects Contrast in Neutron Tomographic Images
title_sort hydration state of bone tissue affects contrast in neutron tomographic images
topic Bioengineering and Biotechnology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9247154/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35782510
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2022.911866
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