Description of skeletal phenotype of mouse strains

The study of fracture healing and the effects that can stimulate or delay this process are of common clinical interest. Many animal models were established to study fracture healing under defined conditions aiming to draw conclusion about the healing in humans. Due to the possibilities of genetic modifications, mouse strains became the optimal model in research of specific regulation levels in the complex field of regenerative medicine and research. Many groups clarified that genetic modification can significantly influence bone morphology and thus changes of bone growth, remodelling and fracture healing are presumed. Hence it is necessary to describe the skeletal phenotype of mouse strains by precisely analysing the bone morphology before starting further studies.

There are single studies that gave an appropriate concept in description of the phenotype of mouse-strains. We developed an optimized protocol for the description of bone properties in different mice by use of micro-Ct, biomechanical and histo-morphometric parameters.