Collaborative Research: Biomechanical significance of bone material variation in the locomotor skeleton

虽然人们已经认识到，骨骼健康受到体育活动的影响，但目前尚不清楚活动的强度、持续时间或频率是否对骨骼完整性有最积极的影响。这项研究通过检查不同形式的运动行为对骨骼解剖的多个指标的不同影响，研究灵长类动物(如人类)的骨骼如何适应身体活动。这种综合方法需要一个研究群体，可以获得必要的行为、生物力学和骨骼结构数据；因此，被检查的骨骼样本来自七个非洲灵长类物种，这些物种的运动行为和活动模式已经被研究了超过15年，提供了独特和广泛的行为差异，从中可以研究骨骼对不同活动方案的反应。通过对这些相互关系的考察，研究将加深对生理活动(如跑步的强度和频率)对骨骼结构和适应能力的影响的了解，从而确定影响四肢骨骼完整性的活动类型。研究结合骨骼数量(大小)和质量(刚度)来计算骨骼结构完整性的度量。骨质量是通过微压痕技术来确定的，这是一种测量整个骨骼中骨骼硬度的小范围变化的方法，以允许详细了解骨强度，包括骨折风险。此外，不同类型的运动活动(步行、跑步、跳跃)和活动水平(每天花费在运动中的时间)如何通过动力学(骨骼受力的测量)和重塑(骨骼修复自身的过程)的不同角度来评估对骨适应的影响。通过这种比较和多方面的方法，这项研究试图确定哪些方面的体力活动对骨强度有积极或消极的影响。这项研究的最重要的智力价值在于，在确定骨骼解剖和运动行为之间的关联时，可以识别出可以积极影响骨骼适应的活动类型。这些结果应该适用于人类人群的临床环境，在行为和解剖学之间建立更明确的联系，并通过对可用作骨骼健康和功能指数的骨骼质量进行精细评估。此外，这项研究活动还产生了几个重要的社会影响。这些措施包括为美国本科生和研究生提供人类学、工程学和健康科学方面的跨学科培训；将未被充分代表的群体纳入工程学和人类学研究；为保护受威胁的灵长类种群做出贡献；以及改善美国三所院校的大学教育基础设施。

While it is recognized that bone health is influenced by physical activity, it remains unclear whether it is the intensity, duration, or frequency of activity that has the most positive impact on skeletal integrity. This research investigates how the skeleton of primates (such as humans) adapts to physical activity through examination of the differential impact of diverse forms of locomotor behavior on multiple measures of bone anatomy. The integrated approach requires a study population for which the requisite behavioral, biomechanical, and bone structure data are accessible; the bone samples examined therefore come from a population of seven African primate species for which locomotor behavior and activity patterns have been under study for over 15 years, providing a unique and broad spectrum of behavioral variation from which to investigate how bones respond to different activity regimens. Through examination of these interrelationships, the research will improve understanding of the influence of physiological activity (e.g., intensity and frequency of running) on bone structure and adaptation, and thereby identify the types of activity that influence the integrity of limb bones.The study combines consideration of bone quantity (size) with quality (stiffness) to calculate measures of bone structural integrity. Bone quality is determined through the technique of microindentation, a method that measures small-scale variation in bone stiffness throughout bones to permit detailed understanding of bone strength, including fracture risk. In addition, how different types of locomotor activity (walking, running, jumping) and activity levels (amount of time spent per day in locomotion) influence bone adaptation is assessed through the different perspectives of kinetics (the measurement of forces on the skeleton) and remodeling (the process by which bone repairs itself). Through this comparative and multifaceted approach, this research seeks to establish what aspects of physical activity are influential in either positively or negatively affecting bone strength. The overarching intellectual merit of this study is that in determining the association between bone anatomy and locomotor behavior, the kinds of activity that can positively influence bone adaptation may be identified. Such results should find application to clinical contexts for human populations in establishing more definitive links between behavior and anatomy, and through refined assessments of bone quality that can be used as an index of bone health and function. In addition, several impacts of societal importance emerge from this research activity. These include interdisciplinary training in anthropology, engineering, and the health sciences for both undergraduate and graduate US students; inclusion of underrepresented groups in engineering and anthropological research; contributions to the conservation of threatened primate populations; and improvement of educational infrastructure at the university level across three US institutions.