Micro-Computed Tomography (Micro-CT)
Micro-CT (QuantumGX, PerkinElmer, United States) was conducted on the hind paw to scan the microstructure of the joint and parameters were analyzed precisely at the same region of distal tibia. Specimen scanner settings were designed as follows: exposure time 14 min at 90 KV and 88 mA with a resolution of 2 μm and field-of-view 12.8 mm× 12.8 mm. The parameters of trabecular bone, including bone volume to bone volume fraction (BV/TV, %), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th, μm), trabecular bone mineral density (tb.BMD, g/cm3), trabecular number (Tb.N, mm/1), trabecular separation (Tb.Sp, mm) were exported for reconstruction using the manufacturer’s software, Caliper Analyze.