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Bone Short Answer Questions: Answer 2/3 or all 3 for extra credit.
1. A postmenopausal woman slips while stepping off a curb, falls, and
cracks her pelvic bone. During diagnosis, the physician begins to
consider the possibility of osteoporosis. What are the symptoms and risk
factors of osteoporosis? What diagnostic procedures would the physician
order to verify the diagnosis of osteoporosis? If the diagnosis is
verified, what treatment will the physician initiate?
2. Describe how calcium homeostasis is regulated by calcitriol,
calcitonin and parathyroid hormone.
3. Compare the structure and functions of spongy and compact bone.
Compare the mechanisms of intramembranous ossification and endochondrial
ossification.
3. Compact bones are solid bones that sandwich spongy bones (AKA diploe) –
because of this, compact bones are divided into inner and outer varieties (inner side
facing a body cavity). Spongy bones are mostly hollow, with crisscrossing struts called
trabeculae that are spread throughout for strength. The hollow structure of spongy bone
allows them to act as “shock absorbers” that dissipates damage to the outer compact bone
so that the inner compact bone isn’t damaged (which would probably result in wounding
vital organs and also open up the body to the outside). Compact and spongy bones are
found in flat bones, such as those found in the sternum or cranium.
The two types of bone formation – intramembranous (IM here for convenience)
and endochondrial (EC, for convenience) ossification – correspond to different bone
types. IM ossification results in flat bones, while EC ossification results in mostly long
bones.
IM ossification starts out with the mesenchyme – undifferentiated progenitor cells
that are part of the embryonic mesoderm – “congealing” into strands (since the IC matrix
is gel-like) into the precursors of spongy bone – a network of trabeculae. Osteoblasts
form uncalcified osteoid tissue on the trabeculae, and then calcium phosphate crystallizes
the structured matrix formed, with some of the osteoblasts getting trapped within and
becoming osteocytes. Osteoblasts on the surface form compact bone while osteoclasts in
the network carve out hollow marrow spaces.
EC ossification means bone forming within cartilage. The bone sort of grows out,
so that by looking at a piece of long bone, the diaphysis would be the origin of growth
while the epiphyses are the latest growths. The diaphysis was originally cartilage
(chondrocytes) which became ossification centers (first steps in making bone), and the
outer membrane (the perichondrium) produce a bony collar. This new structure prevents
diffusion of nutrients into inside so chondrocytes inside die and the resulting hollow
space becomes the marrow or medullary cavity. A periosteal bud forms around the bony
collar and produces osteogenic cells that go into the marrow and become osteoblasts, and
these start depositing osteoid tissue which calcify into trabeculae (not unlike IM
ossification here). Osteoclasts are also in the cavity, enlarging it. The bone gets larger and
larger, and secondary ossification centers at the two tips of the bone not covered by the
periosteum form the articular cartilage.