Effect of hydrogen bonding ability, dipole-dipole interactions and viscosity of extracellular matrix fluid on the bone mechanical behavior

This is an exploratory study to determine the role of water in sustaining the mechanical behavior of bone. Water is speculated to interact in two different ways with the mineral and collagen phases; namely, hydrogen bonding and dipole-dipole interactions. This study followed an experimental procedure of replacing water present in bone with different fluids of known hydrogen bonding abilities and polarities to identify effect of Hydrogen bonding and polarity of extracellular matrix fluid on the mechanical behavior of bone. After replacement of the extracellular matrix fluid with selected solvents, mechanical testing was done using a progressive loading protocol to determine the effect changing the hydrogen bonding ability and polarity of the matrix fluid on the mechanical behavior of bone. Further data processing to quantify the various parameters measuring different mechanical properties was done followed by statistical analysis to determine if there were any significant changes in the mechanical behavior of bone when the extracellular matrix fluid was replaced by other solvents.

The experimental results indicated that there are significant changes in the bone mechanical behavior when the extracellular matrix fluid is replaced with different solvents.