Quantitative 3D Microstructural Analysis

3D images of the rat tibias were taken using the Quantum GX Micro-CT System (PerkinElmer, Waltham, MA) as previously described [20 (link)]. The rats were sedated using an isoflurane (1–5%) and oxygen (2 L/min) mixture during the imaging procedures and placed in the supine position inside the cabinet. The scanning conditions were used as follows: kV = 90, CT μA = 72, and 360° scan time = 8 s. We analyzed the three-dimensional reconstruction images with Analyze 12.0 (PerkinElmer, Waltham, MA). The bone density around the infective sites was calculated by the percent bone volume (BV) divided by total volume (TV, %).