Collagen fibers in the healty cortical bone tends to align to the bone axis, and the degree of this orientation is one of dominant factors to determine bone strength. Because microscopic R2* around a collagen fiber is anisotropic, we investigated how the UTE signal from mice femurs (normal and osteopetrotic) varies by changing the angle between the bone axis and B0 for future MRI evaluation of bone strength. The angular dependence of UTE signal of a knockout osteopetrotic mouse decreased 1/5 of a normal mouse. This decrease reflects deterioration of collagen fiber orientation that is a pathological evidence of osteopetrosis.
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