The Orign of Bones

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Haller (1763) injected a clear fluid into the periosteum showing that “the origin of bone is the artery carrying the blood and in it the mineral elements” putting forward the idea that the cardiovascular system was responsible for bone formation. This was supported by the previous work of Hunter (1754)
Pritchard (1946) studied what triggers osteogenesis: the same stimulus causing inflammation or mechanical stress. How was the study conducted? Pritchard (1946) suggested osteogenesis is a result of humoral stimulus not mechanical in relation to the skull vault.
Two groups of Lister strain of black and white hooded Norwegian rats were used. Young rats, six to eighteen month old, were used due to their rapid and vigorous cellular response. They each had incisions made through the pericranium, skull and dura mater to study bone repair with reduced blood supply to the fracture site. The fracture was created in the cranial vault as cartilage is rare in this site and there minimal mechanical factors are involved. By examining the rats at different intervals during the repair phase Girigs & Pritchard (1958) were able to support the study of Pritchard (1948) that in a healing fracture cartilage is produced due to reduced blood supply. They found that since cartilage is less demanding of oxygen it acts as a temporary bridge between the fracture gap until blood supply is restored Thiymidine was used on forty two, five week old female rats to conduct an autradiographic study the cellular response in fracture repair. Observations of the periosteal index were conducted at several intervals between the period of one hour and fourteen days. The results show cellular proliferation in the periosteum and the adjacent soft tissue as being the initial...

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...the effect of a lack of lymphocytes on fracture repair They used eight week old male recombination activating gene 1 knockout (RAG -/-) mice to model the absence of lymphocytes and wilt-type mice Unilateral closed fractures were induced in all rats and the progression of fracture healing was evaluated at days three, seven, fourteen, twenty-one and twenty-eight The results of the experiment show that during fracture healing the biochemical properties, mineralisation and remodelling were all enhanced in RAG-/- mice Therefore there must be a regulatory role of lymphocytes during fracture repair
It can be assumed that a strong inflammatory response may have evolved to fight against pathogens to prevent infection during injury Anti-inflammatory cytokins present in the absence of lymphocytes increased both the mechanical properties and bone formation in a fracture

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