Skeletal Growth and Peak Bone Strength

Abstract

The magnitude of the variance of bone traits such as bone mass and size around their age-specific mean is large. Differences in the percentile location of bone traits established at the completion of growth are likely to be important determinants of fracture risk in adulthood. Bone modeling assembles bone size and shape according to a genetic program; fetal limb buds grown in vitro develop the shape of the proximal femur so the variance in bone shape is largely determined by genetic factors. Metaphyseal trabecular morphology predicts both trabecular and cortical morphology and remains largely unchanged from early in life to young adulthood. Advances in imaging allow us to quantify the materi..