  Abstract The transport of nutrients or signal constituents that stimulate
growth of bone tissue is supposed to be affected by a static mechanical load.
It follows from basic thermodynamical principles that constituents causing
volumetric change are dragged along the gradients of hydrostatic stress. The
present preliminary study examines the behaviour of iodine present in the
medullary cavity of a bovine long bone exposed to mechanical load. A section of
the bone is x-ray scanned with the static load present, with and without the
iodine. The resulting distribution in a selected 2D plane is numerically
evaluated using a discrete Radon's inverse transform. The result suggests that
iodine is a useful constituent with a good attenuation effect on the x-ray beam
and clearly reveals the temporal distribution of its transport through the
bone. It further result shows some indication that stress does affect the
iodine distribution.
