Journal article
Quantifying the osteocyte network in the human skeleton
PR Buenzli, NA Sims
Bone | ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC | Published : 2015
Abstract
Osteocytes form an extensive cellular network throughout the hard tissue matrix of the skeleton, which is known to regulate skeletal structure. However due to limitations in imaging techniques, the magnitude and complexity of this network remain undefined.We have used data from recent papers obtained by new imaging techniques, in order to estimate absolute and relative quantities of the human osteocyte network and form a more complete understanding of the extent and nature of this network.We estimate that the total number of osteocytes within the average adult human skeleton is ~42 billion and that the total number of osteocyte dendritic projections from these cells is ~3.7 trillion. Based o..
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Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank Kevin Tetsworth for organising star-gazing at the Eighth Clare Valley Bone Meeting, Sarah L Rea and Gerald J Atkins for useful discussions, Astrid Bakker and Egon Perilli for suggesting useful reference works, Lynda Bonewald for the background image in Fig. 2 and T John Martin and Ego Seeman for enthusiastically and critically reviewing the manuscript. PRB is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award (DE130101191); NAS is funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Research Fellowship (1019703); St. Vincent's Institute is supported by the Victorian State Government Operational Infrastructure Support Scheme.