Hierarchical Structure and Repair of Bone: Deformation, Remodelling, Healing

The design of natural materials follows a radically different paradigm as compared to engineering materials: organs are growing rather than being fabricated. As a main consequence, adaptation to changing conditions remains possible during the whole lifetime of a biological material. As a typical example of such a biological material, bone is constantly laid down by bone forming cells, osteoblasts, and removed by bone resorbing cells, osteoclasts. With this remodelling cycle of bone resorption and formation, the skeleton is able to adapt to changing needs at all levels of structural hierarchy. The hierarchical structure of bone is summarized in the second part of this chapter.