ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biomechanics
This article is part of the Research TopicMechanical Forces in Health and Disease: A Mechanobiological PerspectiveView all 25 articles
Gradient Mechanical Environments Modulate Intra-Osteonal Fluid Flow: A Three-Dimensional Finite Element Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Taiyuan, China
- 2Jilin Medical University, Jilin, China
- 3Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
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Mechanical signal transmission within the skeletal microenvironment is crucial for regulating bone metabolism, with intra-osteonal fluid flow serving as a key mediator. This study constructs a three-dimensional finite element model to systematically analyze the dynamic responses of pore pressure, flow velocity, and fluid shear stress under gradient boundary conditions, including varying mechanical loading intensities (from weightlessness to destructive loading), pulsatile blood pressure at the inner osteonal wall (0 to 2.5 times physiological levels), and radial displacement constraints on the outer wall (from fully constrained to fully elastic). Results demonstrate that both loading intensity and outer wall constraint strength exhibit a positive correlation with intra-osteonal pore pressure, flow velocity, and fluid shear stress. Elevated pulsatile blood pressure significantly increases pore pressure amplitudes, yet has minimal impact on flow velocity and fluid shear stress, indicating potential adaptive regulatory mechanisms in the osteonal microstructure, such as localized adjustments in permeability. The study reveals the critical role of mechanical constraints in regulating bone fluid flow and elucidates the mechanism by which blood pressure fluctuations influence the bone metabolic microenvironment through pore pressure transmission. These findings provide a quantitative model for understanding mechanotransduction in osteons under gradient boundary conditions, offering a theoretical basis for developing mechanical intervention strategies for osteoporosis and other bone-related diseases by optimizing the osteonal fluid microenvironment.
Keywords: Fluid flow, Mechanical microenvironment, Osteon, pore pressure, Pulsatile blood pressure
Received: 11 Oct 2025; Accepted: 10 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Yu, Feng, Gao, Huang, Li, Xie, Liu and Yang. 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: WeiLun Yu
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