Deformation regimes of collagen fibrils in cortical bone revealed by in situ morphology and elastic modulus observations under mechanical loading

The response of the collagen fibrils in the bone during the elastic deformation of murine tibia is revealed by atomic force microscopy and a nanoindentation approach. It is shown that the mineralized collagen fibrils are stretched and elongated in the early phase of bone deformation, characterizing with fibril elongation, followed by their reorientation.360