Numerical calculation of streaming potential around osteocytes under human gait loading.

Streaming potential is a type of stress-generated potential in bone that affects the electrical environment of osteocytes and may play a role in bone remodeling. Because the electrical environment around osteocytes has been difficult to measure experimentally until now, a numerical solid-liquid-streaming potential coupling method was proposed to analyze the streaming potential generated by bone deformation in the lacunae and canaliculus network (LCN) of the bone. Using this method, the cellular shear stress caused by liquid flow on the osteocyte surface was first calculated, and the results were consistent with those reported in the literature. Subsequently, the streaming potentials in the LCN caused by bone matrix deformation under an external gait load were calculated numerically. The results showed that the streaming potential increased slowly in the lacuna and relatively rapidly in the canaliculus and that the streaming potential increased with a decrease in the radius or an increase in the length of the canaliculus. The results also showed that relatively large gaps between the lacunae and osteocytes could induce higher streaming potentials under the same loading.

Influence of shear stress on behaviors of piezoelectric voltages in bone.

The piezoelectric properties of bone play an important role in the bone remodeling process and can be employed in clinical bone repair. In this study, the piezo-voltage of bone between two surfaces of a bone beam under bending deformation was measured using an ultra-high-input impedance bioamplifier. The influence of shear stress on the signs of piezo-voltages in bone was determined by comparing and contrasting the results from three-point and four-point bending experiments. From the three-point bending experiment, the study found that the signs of piezo-voltages depend only on shear stress and are not sensitive to the normal stress.

Stretched exponential relaxation of piezovoltages in wet bovine bone.

It is important to determine the amplitude and variation characteristics of piezovoltage in wet bone, which can, in turn, be taken as a basis for studying whether electrical signals induced by external forces can affect the growth of bone cells. This work measured the characteristics of piezoelectric effects under dynamic and static loading. The results show that the variations of piezovoltage in wet bone in both loading and load holding periods follow a stretched exponential relaxation law, and the relaxation time constants of the piezovoltages are much larger than those of dry bone. This finding means that the active time of piezovoltage in wet bone is much longer than that of dry bone. Regardless of the loading and load holding processes, continuously increasing deformation in wet bone caused piezoelectric charges to be continuously induced and increased the dielectric constant of wet bone along with the deformation process. In general, compared with piezovoltage in dry bone, that in wet bone had lower amplitude and could exist for a longer duration. It can be inferred, therefore, that piezoelectricity might create coupling with the streaming potential in bone by changing the thickness of the double electrode layer.