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Diagram of a typical long bone showing both compact (cortical) and cancellous (spongy) bone. Osteons on cross-section of a bone. In osteology, the osteon or haversian system (/ h ə ˈ v ɜːr. ʒ ən /; named for Clopton Havers) is the fundamental functional unit of much compact bone.
Diagram of a typical long bone showing both cortical (compact) and cancellous (spongy) bone. Haversian canals [i] (sometimes canals of Havers, osteonic canals or central canals) are a series of microscopic tubes in the outermost region of bone called cortical bone. They allow blood vessels and nerves to travel through them to supply the osteocytes.
Diameter of canaliculi in human bone is approximately 200 to 900 nm. [1] In bovine tibia diameter of canaliculi was found to vary from 155 to 844 nm (average 426 nm). [ 2 ] In mice humeri it varies from 80 to 710 nm (average 259 nm), while diameter of osteocytic processes varies from 50 to 410 nm (average 104 nm).
The long bone category includes the femora, tibiae, and fibulae of the legs; the humeri, radii, and ulnae of the arms; metacarpals and metatarsals of the hands and feet, the phalanges of the fingers and toes, and the clavicles or collar bones. The long bones of the human leg comprise nearly half of adult height.
In an ordinary microscopic section, viewed by transmitted light, they appear as fusiform opaque spots. Each lacuna is occupied during life by a branched cell, termed an osteocyte, bone-cell or bone-corpuscle. Lacunae are connected to one another by small canals called canaliculi. A lacuna never contains more than one osteocyte.
The compact forms as the layer of fascia covering the bone stimulate the ossification of adjacent tissue. The resulting compact bone is known as a periosteal collar. The collarbone has a medullary cavity (marrow cavity) in its medial two-thirds. [7] It is made up of spongy cancellous bone with a shell of compact bone. [8]
Bones are commonly described with the terms head, neck, shaft, body and base. The head of a bone usually refers to the distal end of the bone. The shaft refers to the elongated sections of long bone, and the neck the segment between the head and shaft (or body). The end of the long bone opposite to the head is known as the base.
Cancellous bone or spongy bone, [12] [11] also known as trabecular bone, is the internal tissue of the skeletal bone and is an open cell porous network that follows the material properties of biofoams. [13] [14] Cancellous bone has a higher surface-area-to-volume ratio than cortical bone and it is less dense. This makes it weaker and more flexible.