Bone and Cartilage – its Structure and Physical Properties - Biomechanics of Hard Tissues - page 5

Figure 1.1 Frustrated matter - a prototype
of biological medium: numerical simulation
ofBragg-Nyebubbleraftexperiment[21],
with Centroidal Voronoi network. Experiment
produced image of a bubble raft showing

vacancies and five to seven edge disloca-
tions. Disclination 5 (with five neighbors) is
denoted by white point, while disclination 7
(with seven neighbors) is denoted by white
circle. Courtesy of Andrzej Lissowski.

(a) (b)

Figure 1.2 Pentagon- heptagon dipoles of dislocations in
hexagonal lattice. (a) Numerical simulation of Bragg-Nye
bubble raft experiment with Centroidal Voronoi network.
(b) The same experiment in dual (triangular) representation.
Courtesy of Andrzej Lissowski.

between local and global configurations is known as geometrical frustration

[20].
From microorganisms to man, from the smallest cell organelle to the human
brain, life presents us with examples of highly ordered cellular matter, precisely
organized and shaped to perform coordinated functions [22].
A topological distribution of approximately hexagonal lattice of osteocytes in
osteon and osteons in a compact bone is observed (cf. Figure 1.16). Creation of
one new osteon leads to disturbance of the lattice and is equivalent to the lattice
defects - two pentagon-heptagon (5- 7) dislocations - analogous to those observed
in crystal lattice, cf. Figure 1.1.
The problem of cell, in particular bone cell, communication is important.
Paracrine signaling is a form of cell signaling in which the target cell is near