The goal of this study is to track the onset and migration of bone loss induced by transient muscle paralysis with the hopes of using this data to elucidate the drivers of osteoclastic bone resorption in this model. Bone loss induced by transient muscle paralysis is an osteoclast driven process that results in dramatic endocortical resorption at the tibia midshaft, while leaving the periosteal surface relatively unchanged. This unchanged periosteal surface can be used as a registration landmark to superimposed serial micro-CT images as a way to track the spatial and time dependent resorption that occurs on the endocortical surface (seen below). 3-Dimensional videos of bone loss seen at the bottom of this page, highlight the complex, yet highly reproducible spatial pattern of cortical bone loss observed in our model.
