You are welcome to attend Cyrus Fiori MASc oral exam supervised by Professor T. Willett and Professor R. Legge
Abstract:
Increased bone fragility can stem from age-related and chronic bone affecting diseases (i.e. osteoporosis, diabetes and kidney disease), hormonal and radiation-based cancer treatments, and/or trauma and results in massive annual cost to the healthcare system and decreased quality of life for patients. Oxidative stress, also known as inflammation, is hypothesized to be a key mechanism of causing oxidative damage in cortical bone’s collagen phase, thereby increasing its fragility, however this mechanism has not yet been confirmed. Operating under this hypothesis, the present work sought to develop an in vitro model of oxidative stress in bovine cortical bone to confirm this link. Results demonstrated the creation of oxidative damage in a distribution consistent with pore network modelling and that more mechanical insight can be gained by increasing replicates, possibly allowing the confirmation of oxidative stress as a mechanism of increased bone fragility.