Normal Bone Anatomy and physiology
2012
2011
2010
2009
Stontium
Biphosphonates 9/21
Hair loss after weight loss surgery! 5/18
Drug interactions with herbal remedies 5/4
Exercise habit
Pregnancy after duodenal switch 4/27
Calorie calculation 4/13
Cells found in bones 3/11
Calorie predictive relations in energy regulation by rats3/9
2/2
Am I going Bald
Trans Fatty Acids 1/7
2008
Olive oil 12/30
Bariatric surgery before pregnancy 12/5
Antioxidant effects of almonds 10/20
Moderate Exercise Yields Big Benefits 6/1
Used with
permission:
Susan M. Ott, MD
Associate
Professor,
Medicine
University of
Washington
The bones in the skeleton
are not all solid. The
outside cortical bone is
solid bone with only a few
small canals. The insides
of the bone contain
trabecular 
bone which is
like scaffolding or a
honey-comb. The spaces
between the bone are
filled with fluid bone
marrow cells, which make
the blood, and some fat
cells.
You can see the difference yourself at the grocery store meat department. Here is a photograph of a T-bone steak Below is a close-up picture of a piece of the pelvic bone. It was put into a special kind of xray machine which gives lots of details.
The photograph is used with permission from Dr. Yebin Jiang from University of California, San Francisco.
If all the bones were solid, think how heavy they would be. It would be hard to run! The next page is about the cells inside the bones.
There are three special types of cells that are found only in the bone. These cell names all start with "OSTEO" because that is the Greek word for bone.
are large cells that dissolve
the bone. They come from 
the bone marrow
and are related to white blood cells. They are
formed from two or more cells that fuse
together, so the osteoclasts usually have more
than one nucleus. They are found on the
surface of the bone mineral next to the
dissolving bone.
are the cells that form new 
bone. They also come from the bone marrow
and are related to structural cells. They ave
only one nucleus. Osteoblasts work in teams to
build bone. They produce new bone called "osteoid" which is made of one collagen and
other protein. Then they control calcium and
mineral deposition. They are found on the
surface of the new bone.
When the team of osteoblasts has finished
filling in a cavity, the cells become 
flat and look like pancakes. They line the surface of the
bone. These old osteoblasts are also called . They regulate passage of
calcium into and out of the bone, and they
respond to hormones by making special
proteins that activate the osteoclasts.
are cells inside the bone. They 
also come from steoblasts. Some of the
osteoblasts turn into osteocytes while the new
bone is being formed, and the osteocytes then
get urrounded by new bone. They are not
isolated, however, because they send out long
branches that connect to the other osteocytes.
These cells can sense pressures or cracks in
the bone and help to direct where osteoclasts
will dissolve the bone.
