Cantilever Bending of Murine Femoral Necks

The cantilever bending setup outlined in this protocol creates a reproducible approach for generating femoral neck fractures, which are more clinically relevant and can be utilized in murine studies to look at osteoporosis. This protocol creates a testing platform that improves reproducibility, leading to decreased coefficient of variation in outcome measures. Therefore, it minimizes the sample size needed for robust studies.

Begin by cutting tubing sections of length 1/2-inch to 1-inch using 1/4-inch by 1/4-inch square aluminum tubing. Label each aluminum segment with the sample IDs with an etching tool. Fill half of the tubing segments with putty and place them into a fixture to hold them upright.