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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biomechanics
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2024.1464067
This article is part of the Research Topic Biomechanical and Biomaterial Advances in Degenerative Diseases of Bone and Joint View all 8 articles

Musculoskeletal model predicted paraspinal loading may quick estimate the effect of exercise on spine BMD

Provisionally accepted
Shizhong Liu Shizhong Liu 1Xiaoyu Xia Xiaoyu Xia 1Yinxia Nie Yinxia Nie 2Mengen Huang Mengen Huang 1Lin Meng Lin Meng 1*Juan Du Juan Du 1*
  • 1 Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
  • 2 Tianjin University of Sport, Tianjin, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Purpose: Spine is the most commonly found fracture site due to osteoporosis. Combined exercise including high-impact and resistance exercise shows the potential to improve bone mineral density (BMD) in the spine. However, the mechanical loading introduced by exercise, which is the mechanism of BMD changes, has not been investigated. The purpose of this study is to provide a new insight to investigate the mechanical stimuli of exercise induced bone remodelling.Methods: Ten postmenopausal women with osteopenia who finalized a six-month combined exercise of high-impact and resistance intervention were included. The changes in BMD were analyzed based on QCT images obtained from pre and post intervention. A modified full-body musculoskeletal model was built to estimate paravertebral muscle force (MF) and intervertebral compression force (ICF) during daily activities (walking and heel drop) and combined exercise including high-impact (jumping) and resistance exercise (pulling elastic bands).Results: The paravertebral MF and ICF during jumping and pulling elastic bands exercise were all significantly greater than walking and heel drop exercise with up to 1.22-8.18 times. Spine BMD remained at the same level with no significant decline observed, especially at L1 (pre 247.95±26.77 mg/cm 3 & post 245.49±22.04 mg/cm 3 ). Comparing with daily activities, significant correlations were observed between the changes of BMD and the sum of spinal loadings generated by combined exercise at both global and segmental level (r=0.687, p<0.05). Conclusion: It has been proved that paravertebral muscle forces and intervertebral compression forces generated by the combined exercise, rather than daily exercise, were the main reasons for the improvement of spine BMD. This study contributes into the understanding of exercise induced spine adaptation as well as a potential in fast prediction to evaluate the effect of physical exercise therapy.

    Keywords: Musculoskeletal Model, Exercise, spine biomechanics, Bone remodelling, Osteoporosis

    Received: 13 Jul 2024; Accepted: 05 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Liu, Xia, Nie, Huang, Meng and Du. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Lin Meng, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
    Juan Du, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.