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Osteocyte Morphology in the Primate Craniofacial Skeleton
Author(s) -
Smith Leslie,
Ren Yinshi,
Feng Jerry,
Dechow Paul
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.697.9
Subject(s) - osteocyte , craniofacial , anatomy , sphericity , primate , postcrania , skeleton (computer programming) , human bone , biology , cortical bone , strain (injury) , osteoblast , materials science , neuroscience , genetics , in vitro , biochemistry , botany , taxon , composite material
Frost's “mechanostat” theory suggests MES varies throughout the skeleton in order to maintain strength in low strain regions such as the cranial vault. More spherical osteocytes have been shown to produce more nitric oxide than oblong osteocytes undergoing the same stress in vitro. In this study we look at osteocyte shape differences in a high and low strain region of the human craniofacial skeleton: the zygoma (Z) and the browridge (BR), respectively, and between the BRs of a chimp and human. We hypothesize that BR osteocytes will be more spherical in shape than those in the Z, and that osteocytes in the robust chimp BR will be more spherical than those in the human. Rectangular samples were extracted from the BR and Z regions of a 36 year old human female and an adult female chimp BR. Samples were stained with FITC, embedded in MMA and captured using confocal microscopy. Osteocytes from each cortical region were analyzed in Imaris for differences in sphericity. T‐tests were used to determine significance. Osteocytes in all three regions were more spherical (average sphericity greater than 0.63) and less ellipsoidal. There were no significant differences found between either group. These results suggest that differences between postcranial and calvarial osteocytes that are useful in maintaining bone mass in regions of low strain may not exist between subregions of craniofacial bone. Funding: National Science Foundation Physical Anthropology HOMINID program (NSF BCS 0725141)