BioDent®: benchtop reference point indentation for bone, cartilage and soft tissue
BioDent is a benchtop, highly configurable research instrument that measures the material properties of bone, cartilage and any soft tissue at the tissue level, using reference point indentation (RPI). It measures living animals in vivo, and bone, cartilage and any soft tissue or material from human or animal sources ex vivo or in vitro. BioDent is the laboratory counterpart to OsteoProbe®; both are developed and solely distributed by Active Life Scientific, Inc. (BoneScore).
What BioDent measures
BioDent is a cyclic microindenter. It drives a test probe into a sample and records complete force-displacement curves over repeated cycles, typically calculating 9 parameters that reflect stiffness and energy dissipation:
- Loading and unloading slopes: relative measures of material stiffness
- Indentation distances: relative measures of fracture resistance
- Energy dissipation: a relative measure of material flexibility
Why labs choose BioDent
| 3- and 4-point bending | BioDent (RPI) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it reports | Whole-bone stiffness, elasticity, maximum load | Local tissue properties at the indentation site |
| Sample preparation | Needs a whole bone of suitable geometry | Works on samples without special geometry or orientation |
| Animal studies | Animal is sacrificed; one time point per animal | Repeated in vivo measurement shown in dogs, rats and mice |
| Tissue range | Bone | Bone, cartilage, any soft tissue, disc, dentin, biological and engineered materials |
Tissues, materials and species
- Cartilage: human osteoarthritic cartilage and mouse articular cartilage
- Soft tissue and intervertebral disc: intact disc mechanics, nucleus versus annulus
- Bone: human cadaver femur, femoral neck and tibia; genetic and disease models in mice and rats; bovine, porcine and equine bone
- Dentin and materials: treated dentin, fish scales, rubbers, polymers and engineered materials
- Species studied: mice, rats, dogs, pigs, cattle, horses, rabbits and fish
Because BioDent can test living animals repeatedly, one animal can give a longitudinal series instead of a single end point, which reduces the number of animals a study needs.
Three ways to work with us
- Equipment: a BioDent system for your lab, with training
- Method: help designing a study-specific method: sample preparation, fixtures, repeatability, comparator groups and data format
- Testing by our team: send us your samples and we run the microindentation testing
Tell us your tissue or material, your research question, sample count, the outputs you need and your timeline.
Measuring bone in living people? See OsteoProbe®, our handheld, FDA-cleared impact microindentation device.
BioDent is a research instrument and is not intended for clinical diagnosis.