Cortical bone constituents

Chipperfield AR, Taylor DM. 1972. The binding of thorium(IV), plutonium(IV), americium(III) and curium(III) to the constituents of bovine cortical bone in vitro. Radiat Res 51 15-30. 

Tissue Properties. The properties of human tissues when the body is considered a linear, passive mechanical system are summarized in Table 10.1 (von Gierke et al., 2002 Goldstein et al., 1993). The values shown for soft tissues are typical of muscle tissue, while those for bone depend on the structure of the specific bone. Cortical bone is the dominant constituent of the long bones (e.g., femiu, tibia), while trabecular bone, which is more elastic and energy absorbent, is the dominant constituent of the vertebrae. The shear viscosity and bulk elasticity of soft tissue are from a model for the response in vivo of a human thigh to the vibration of a small-diameter piston (von Gierke et al., 1952)... 

The mechanical properties of bone are related to its complex hierarchical structure. Several levels of structural organization, from macro- to subnanostructure, can be identified (a) the macrostructure (cancellous and cortical bone) (b) the microstructure (from 10 to 500 mm Haversian systems, osteons, single trabeculae) (c) the submicrostructure (1-10 mm lamellae) (d) the nanostructure (from a few hundred nanometers to 1 mm fibrillar Col and embedded mineral) and (e) the subnanostructure (below a few hundred nanometers the molecular structure of constituent elements, such as mineral, collagen, and non-collagenous organic proteins). The hierarchical structural organization of bone is shown in Fig. 1 [12]. 

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