Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, Vol s3-101, 351-370, Copyright © 1960 by Company of Biologists

Differences in the Blood-Supply of Bone of Different Histological Types

¹ Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, Oxford

‘Laminar’ bone, commonly found in artiodactyls and dinosaurs, is described. It consists of a series of bony laminae arranged like tree-rings round the marrow cavity, each lamina being between 0.1 and 0.2 mm thick. Sandwiched between each lamina and the next is an effectively two-dimensional network of blood-vessels. Laminar bone grows in a series of spurts; a sheet of woven-fibred bone is formed very quickly, not actually on the pre-existing sub-periosteal surface, but separated from it by a space. The new bone is held clear of the original surface by an occasional bridge of bone. The space so formed is filled in slowly by parallel-fibred lamellar bone, and while this is going on more woven bone, with spaces, may be formed by the periosteum.

The vascularization of laminar bone on the one hand and bone composed of haversian systems on the other is compared, chiefly in cattle. Laminar bone has a more intimate blood-supply than haversian bone, and it has a larger surface area of bloodchannel per unit volume. The volume of channel per unit volume is about equal in the two types of bone. The mean distance between anastomoses is less in laminar than in haversian bone. The cement-line round haversian systems hinders the passage of materials through the canaliculi. The osteocytes in the interstitial lamellae are thus in a worse position for obtaining foodstuffs and disposing of waste products than osteocytes in laminar bone a similar distance from the nearest blood-vessel.

It is suggested that the formation of haversian systems in laminar bone interferes with the latter's blood-supply and leads to the formation of further haversian systems.