Research Article Open Access

About the Internal Structure of a Bone and its Functional Role

Antonio Apicella1, Raffaella Aversa1, Francesco Tamburrino1 and Florian Ion Tiberiu Petrescu2
  • 1 Second University of Naples, Italy
  • 2 Bucharest Polytechnic University, Romania

Abstract

The human skeleton has the primary role of supporting all the organs that make up the body and at the same time to protect them permanently. It is made up so that it can hold and hold together all internal human organs, protecting them permanently, but also allowing them to move and exercise all their functionalities. This paper wants to show the structure of a healthy, young bone, its functionalities, its role in a human being and some aspects of how bone health can prolong our lives, while a diseased bone organism will it gets sick and ends up losing his vital energy, mobilizing and in a final will dying. A bone is first produced from a cartilage. The cartilage then slowly transforms into a bone through a complex process. When a baby floats in his mother's womb, the developing organism begins to build its shape and causes the cartilage to do so. Cartilage is a tissue that is not as rough as bones but much more flexible and, in a way, more functional. A large amount of fetal cartilage starts to turn into bone, the process itself is called ossification. When ossification takes place, cartilage (which does not contain salts or minerals in it) begins to calcify; that is, the layers of calcium and phosphate salts begin to accumulate on the cells of the cartilage slowly. These cells, surrounded by more and more minerals, aging and dying. This leaves some small pockets of separation in the modified cartilage and small blood vessels grow in these cavities. Now, some specialized cells called osteoblasts start traveling in the developing bone through these blood vessels. These cells produce a substance consisting of collagen fibers and also help in the collection of calcium that is deposited along this fibrous substance (A common analogy for this design is reinforced concrete, which is a network of metal bars coated with concrete mixture). After a while, osteoblasts become part of the mixture, turning into inferior osteocytes, a retracted version of osteoblasts that continue to sneak but do not distance themselves too much from the blood vessels. This newly formed osteocyte network helps to form the sponge-like network of spongy bone. The oscillating bone is not soft, but looks spongy, meaning that it remains in its construction. These spaces help first of all to transfer the external pressure stress to the entire bone (distribution of external pressure on the entire surface of the bone) and secondly, these spaces also contain the marrow. Channel canals, called canaliculi, run on all calcified bone parts, allowing nutrients, gases, toxins and waste to pass through them. The more interesting part is that if the number of bones originally formed is much higher, in the newborn, immediately the bones begin to jug with each other, greatly reducing their total number, thus lowering the mobility and agility of the infant, in order to achieve a stature instead bigger, stronger, stronger, but that will not be as mobile as that of the newborn baby.

American Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Volume 11 No. 2, 2018, 914-931

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3844/ajeassp.2018.914.931

Submitted On: 16 May 2018 Published On: 26 May 2018

How to Cite: Apicella, A., Aversa, R., Tamburrino, F. & Tiberiu Petrescu, F. I. (2018). About the Internal Structure of a Bone and its Functional Role. American Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 11(2), 914-931. https://doi.org/10.3844/ajeassp.2018.914.931

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Keywords

  • Biomechanics
  • Biomaterials
  • Bone
  • Cartilage
  • Ossification
  • Osteoblasts
  • Osteocytes
  • Bones Structure