QUANTITATIVE-ANALYSIS OF BONE TISSUE FORMATION IN DIFFERENT REGIONS OF THE SPONGIOSA IN THE DOG SKELETON

  • 1 January 1979
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 145  (5) , 425-452
Abstract
The relationship between the extent of bone tissue formation and the architecture of the tubular and lamellar components of the spongiosa were investigated within shaft bone ends, the anterior and posterior epiphyses and the intermediate portions of vertebral bodies in 3 dogs (aged 6 mo., 2 and 3 yr) treated for 3 consecutive days with tetracycline. The ratio of the extent of labeled surfaces to the sum of labeled plus unlabeled ones indicates the bone formation rate, referred to as osteogenic activity (OA). In the growing animal a higher osteogenic activity is displayed by the tubular spongiosa, which lies peripherally in the metaphyses of shaft bones and consists of strong trabeculae nearly parallel to one another, and apparently arranged according to the distribution of mechanical stresses. In the adult dogs the relatively higher osteogenic activity recorded in lamellar spongiosa appears to depend on a marked reduction in the osteogenic activity in the tubular spongiosa. In the vertebrae osteogenic activity is higher in the central portion than in extremities solely during the period of growth in length: in the adult the value of osteogenic activity was practically uniform throughout the vertebral body. The tubular spongiosa apparently is more actively involved in the remodeling of the metaphyses while the bone increases in length; the same apparently occurs in the intermediate portion of the vertebral body. The reconstruction of the lamellar spongiosa, presumably less involved mechanically than the tubular spongiosa, apparently is an expression of bone mineral metabolism. A close relationship between spongiosa structure and osteogenic activity apparently occurs at the ends of long bones and within the vertebral body.

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