A topological look at human trabecular bone tissue

Abstract

Bone quality is affected by trabecular architecture at microscopic level. Various abnormalities of bone tissue lead to altered strength and to an increased susceptibility to fracture, such as Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis, two major health burdens of our society. These are two complex musculoskeletal diseases that mainly concern bone tissue. In the last twenty years, there has been a growing interest in finding an appropriate topological model for the micro-architecture of trabecular bone tissue. In particular, we prove that these models involve general topological spaces. The appropriate notion to deal with is that of CW-complex.