Histomorphometry of Human Cortical Bone

Gocha, Timothy P.; Robling, Alexander G.; Stout, Sam D.

doi:10.1002/9781119151647.ch5

Cited by 10 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 96 publications

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“…Osteon size also varies with age and sex due to changes in mechanical loading (Britz et al, 2009). Age‐estimation methods that aggregate remodeled bone areas (Stout & Stanley, 1991; Thompson & Galvin, 1983) or distinguish osteon types (Gocha, Robling, & Stout, 2018) are particularly sensitive to morphometric changes.…”

Section: Traditional Two‐dimensional Histological Age‐estimation Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even in age‐estimation methods that exclude osteon morphometry, osteon size influences the osteon packing underlying OPD and aggregates or percentages of osteon areas (Pfeiffer et al, 2006), which most methods do incorporate (Table 1). Mechanical control of osteon size and shape can alter age‐estimation accuracy between different skeletal elements (Stout & Stanley, 1991; Thompson & Galvin, 1983), between males and females (Gocha et al, 2018), and in varying cross‐sectional locations (Heinrich, 2015).…”

Section: Histomorphometric Variability and Age‐at‐death Estimation Acmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They found osteon counts to be more robust to morphometric changes, as OPD was significantly associated with age in the tibia, fibula, and radius. OPD is still theoretically sensitive to osteon size because a greater number of smaller osteons can be packed into a given cortical area (Crowder & Dominguez, 2012; Gocha et al, 2018; Pfeiffer et al, 2006).…”

Section: Histomorphometric Variability and Age‐at‐death Estimation Acmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Current and emerging histomorphometric and imaging techniques for assessingage‐at‐deathand cortical bone quality

Andronowski

Cole

2020

WIREs Forensic Science

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Bones are dynamic living organs that undergo continual change throughout life. An internal process of tissue renewal, called remodeling, removes mature microscopic packets of bone, and replaces them with new bone in a highly coordinated manner. To date, it remains difficult to directly observe and track individual remodeling events in cortical bone due to the small size of the structures involved. High‐resolution imaging techniques hold the potential to provide novel three‐dimensional information pertaining to changes in bone's microarchitecture, cortical porosity, and the remodeling process. This review critically explores the methodological approaches used historically by researchers to assess the products of remodeling within cortical bone and relate it to age‐at‐death estimation, extending from histology to modern ex vivo imaging modalities, and discusses the growing potential of in vivo imaging. We further provide an introduction to various histological indicators of bone quality and fragility, their forensic relevance, and examples of novel imaging modalities employed for their investigation. The review concludes with an introduction to cutting‐edge in vivo four‐dimensional imaging techniques that include the use of animal models to shed new light on the dynamic nature of bone, and the processes of bone aging and disease. Data gleaned from these new insights will ultimately lead to the development of future histologic age‐estimation methods in forensic anthropology. This article is categorized under: Forensic Anthropology > Age Assessment Forensic Chemistry and Trace Evidence > Emerging Technologies and Methods Forensic Medicine > Imaging Modalities

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Section: Traditional Two‐dimensional Histological Age‐estimation Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Histomorphometric Variability and Age‐at‐death Estimation Acmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Histomorphometric Variability and Age‐at‐death Estimation Acmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Current and emerging histomorphometric and imaging techniques for assessingage‐at‐deathand cortical bone quality

Andronowski

Cole

2020

WIREs Forensic Science

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“…New osteons are continually formed throughout life as bones remodel in response to mechanical forces acting on the skeleton [13,14]. This process occurs through osteoclasts destroying old bone, and osteoblasts laying down new bone.…”

Section: Bone Microstructure Composition and Life Historiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Eventually all that can be seen in bone cross-sections are fragmentary and complete osteons. This continual remodelling forms the basis of efforts to assess the age of adults from counts of complete and partial osteons, and to a lesser extent changes in osteon size [14][15][16][17][18][19]. The considerable variation that exists among individuals and observer error in the counting process, however, introduce great uncertainty about age estimates based on what can be seen in cortical bone cross-sections.…”

Section: Bone Microstructure Composition and Life Historiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trace element distribution in human cortical bone microstructure: the potential for unravelling diet and social status in archaeological bones

et al. 2020

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Variation in the trace element chemistry of cortical bone microstructure is delineated for interred and non-interred human femora. This was done to investigate the range of element concentrations that might occur within single bones, specifically the original laminar bone and later osteons, and its potential for investigating chemical life histories. To do so, femora were chosen from individuals who experienced quite different ways of life over the past two millennia. The distributions of Sr, Ba, Cu, and Pb, mostly in partial (early) and complete (late) osteons, in cross-sections of proximal femora were characterized through Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. Absolute calibrations of these data were obtained using solution Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry on adjacent dissolved bulk samples. Chemical life histories were approximated by classifying bone microstructure into four categories: laminar bone and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation osteons. This four-part sequence, on average, charts the temporal dimension of an individual’s life. Consistent with recent studies of medieval bones, Sr and Ba are thought to be mainly responsive to diet, presumably related to the consumption of mostly locally produced food, while Cu and Pb do the same for heavy metal exposure often attributable to social status or occupation. No systematic differences in these elements were found between interred and non-interred individuals. The effect of diagenesis on interpretations of life histories based on archaeological bone, therefore, are minimized by plotting element concentrations across cortical bone cross-sections.

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The accuracy of age estimation using transition analysis in the Hamann‐Todd collection

Simon

Hübbe

2021

American J Phys Anthropol

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Objectives: Reconstructing demography of past populations using skeletal data is challenging when analyzing adults because the process of biological aging does not always reflect the individual's chronological age. A proposed solution to address the limitations of traditional age estimation methods is transition analysis (TA), a multifactorial method of age estimation. However, despite its methodological refinement, TA has varying degrees of accuracy when applied to different known-age skeletal samples. This study assesses TA's accuracy by comparing age estimates to known age at death in the Hamann-Todd Collection.Materials and Methods: We contrasted the maximum likelihood age estimates generated by the ADBOU program to the known ages of 221 individuals. The absolute error was calculated for the entire sample, and compared between sex and ancestry. Results:The mean absolute error in the sample is 11.6 (SD = 10.3) years, with white individuals' errors (14.1 years) being significantly higher than black individuals' (9.1 years; p < 0.001). No significant differences were found between sexes (p = 0.621). A weak to moderate positive correlation was found between known age and absolute error for white males (R = 0.607; p < 0.001), white females (R = 0.509; p < 0.001), and black males (R = 0.371; p = 0.006). The accuracy of TA age estimates varied when each anatomical region was analyzed independently, but the combination of all three anatomical regions yielded the most accurate age estimates.Discussion: These findings further support that TA accuracy depends on the prior distribution used and, in the Hamann-Todd Collection, the accuracy for white individuals is more influenced by this limitation than when black individuals are analyzed.

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Histomorphometry of Human Cortical Bone

Cited by 10 publications

References 96 publications

Current and emerging histomorphometric and imaging techniques for assessingage‐at‐deathand cortical bone quality

Current and emerging histomorphometric and imaging techniques for assessingage‐at‐deathand cortical bone quality

Trace element distribution in human cortical bone microstructure: the potential for unravelling diet and social status in archaeological bones

The accuracy of age estimation using transition analysis in the Hamann‐Todd collection

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