Recent advances in mechanobiological modeling of bone regeneration

Skeletal regeneration and bone fracture repair involves complex cellular and molecular events that result in new bone formation. Many of the critical steps during bone healing are dependent on the local mechanical environment in the healing tissue. Computational models are used together with mechano-regulation algorithms to predict the influence of mechanical stimuli on the tissue differentiation process during bone healing. This paper reviews the field of computational mechanobiology with focus on bone healing. The history of mechanoregulatory modeling is described, as well as the recent advances and current problems. Most recent advances have been focusing on integrating the mechano-regulatory algorithms with more sophisticated description of the cellular and molecular events. Achieving suitable validation for the models is the most significant challenge. Thus far, focus has been on corroborating mechanoregulatory models by comparing existing models with well characterized experimental data, identify shortcomings and further develop improved computational models of bone healing. Ultimately, these models can be used to help unraveling the basic principles of cell and tissue differentiation, optimization of implant design, and potentially to investigate treatments of non-union and other pathologies. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.