The Law of Transformation of the Bone: Julius Wolff

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~ In the 17th century, Galileo inferred that there was a relationship between mechanical forces and bone morphology, when he noted that body weight and activity were, related to bone size. ~

Julius Wolff ~
In 1892, ~ his Magnum Opus "The law of transformation of the bone" was, published.
There were only a few early pioneers in the field of bone adaption, and then a publication, which came from an East Prussian surgeon from the “Friedrich-Wilhelms University to Berlin” (Charité institute 2014). J. W Wolff; had become a fan of Carl Culmann and Christian H. Von Meyer, the first was a renowned structural engineer who wrote about the “Theoretical Stress Analysis of the Femur” and the latter was a palaeontologist (providing a strong background on bone structure and mechanics). Meyer was known for his- documentation of the plateosaurus and the teratorsaurus, and many others. Wolff was able to associate the works of these gentlemen toward his own as a surgeon, giving rise to “Wolff’s postulate”.
Wolff considered the tissue mechanisms by which remodeling may arise, and in particular to that, which related to the active turnover of bone as recognized by Von Volkmann, Some of Wolff’s deductions were all the more remarkable when you consider his observations were made prior to the discovery of x-rays and modern techniques of tissue and cell biology. (De Gruyter, 1993)
Wolff overlooked the fact that the concept of ductile and compressive stress, applies to compact structures, whilst he was considering the overall organization of a non-solid structure i.e. trabeculae with intervening spaces. Whereas he briefly discussed tissue change, he passed over exploring the role of cells; an unusual lapse given one of his colleagues was Dr. Rudolf...

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..., Vol. 16 2008 (pages 56 - 68) ISSN 1473-2262 the importance of loading frequency, rate and vibration for enhancing bone adaptation and implant osteointegration a. Torcasio, g.h. Van lenthe, and h. Van Oosterwyck* division of biomechanics and engineering design, k.u. Leuven, leuven, Belgium
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