The rat as a viable model for human cervical biomechanics: A quantitative anatomy study

With the increase in rat modeling for injury biomechanics, it is necessary to characterize the bony anatomy of the cervical spine of that species in order to evaluate it as a potential model system mimicking human injury. MicroCT images were acquired from rats and used to quantify several bony characteristics in the axial plane and across intervertebral levels. This study also developed scaled ratios of anatomical parameters to enable comparison to the human cervical spine, based on values reported in the literature. The normalized axial area of the vertebral body is similar in both the rat and human, but the aspect ratio of the vertebral body in the sagittal plane suggests the rat to have a more slender cervical spine than the human.