The mechanical behavior of damaged trabecular bone may play a role in the etiology of age-related spine fractures since damaged bone exists in and may weaken the elderly vertebral body. To describe some characteristics of damaged trabecular bone, we measured the changes in modulus and strength that occur when bovine trabecular bone is loaded in compression to various strains beyond its elastic range. Twenty-three reduced-section specimens, taken from 17 different bones, were loaded from 0-X-0-9% strain, where X was one of four strains: 1.0% (n = 7), 2.5% (n = 6), 4.0% (n = 5), or 5.5% (n = 5). We found that modulus was reduced for all applied strains, whereas strength was reduced only for strain levels > or = 2.5%; the percentage changes in modulus and strength were independent of Young's modulus but were highly dependent on the magnitude of the applied strains; modulus was always reduced more than strength; and simple statistical models, using knowledge of only the applied strains, predicted well the percentage reductions in modulus (r2 = 0.97) and strength (r2 = 0.74). The modulus reductions reported here are in qualitative agreement with those for cortical bone in tensile loading, supporting the concept that the damage behaviors of cortical and trabecular bone are similar for low strains (< or = 4.0%). In addition, because modulus was always reduced more than strength, damaged trabecular bone may be stress protected in vivo by redistribution of stresses to undamaged bone.