Men who stare at bone: multimodal monitoring of bone healing

Knowledge of the physiological and pathological processes taking place in bone during fracture healing or defect regeneration is essential in order to develop strategies to enhance bone healing under normal and critical conditions. Preclinical testing allows a wide range of imaging modalities that may be applied both simultaneously and longitudinally which will in turn lower the number of animals needed to allow a comprehensive assessment of the healing process. This work provides an up-to-date review on morphological, functional, optical, biochemical and biophysical imaging techniques including their advantages, disadvantages, and potential for combination of different modalities. The focus lies on preclinical testing of biomaterials modified with artificial extracellular matrices (aECM) in various animal models to enhance bone remodeling and regeneration.