Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Background: Bone is a dynamic, living tissue that undergoes continuous change throughout life. Current literature suggests that opioid use alters the way bone cells heal and maintain bone tissue. Opioids are a frequent pain management method used in clinical settings (i.e. morphine and fentanyl) and can result in low bone mineral density. Current literature also suggests that sex hormones (e.g., estrogen and testosterone) play vital regulatory functions in bone. The use of hormone supplementation to help repair low bone mineral density in opioid users has not yet been researched extensively. The proposed research project aims to fill this literature gap by exploring if and how bone microstructure changes with hormone therapy interventions.Methodology: The proposed study will include a rabbit-opioid experimental model. The use of an animal model is critical to this research because it affords control of confounding factors of opioid use (e.g., caloric intake, physical activity). Rabbits are an ideal model organism for this study because they share similar bone metabolic processes to humans. The animals will be divided into equal numbers of males and females to account for sex differences. Rabbits will be divided into five categories of seven animals each, containing opioid experimental and control groups. High-resolution imagining will be used to collect quantitative parameters of bone mineral density. Significance: The overarching goals of the study are to 1) evaluate microstructural changes associated with sex hormone supplementation during opioid exposure, and 2) describe whether these changes are indicative of sex hormone clinical treatment. The proposed work is culturally relevant as the misuse and addiction to opioids is a serious public health crisis nationwide.