Experiments on Cell Mechanosensitivity: Bone Cells as Mechanical Engineers

The phenomenon of bone adaptation has been known for more than a century, since the original studies of Roux (Roux, 1881) and Wolff (Wolff, 1892). Mechanical adaptation of bone is the process whereby living bone adapts its mass and structure to prevailing mechanical usage, to obtain a higher efficiency of load bearing. Adaptation will improve an individual animal’s survival chance, because bone is…