Quantitative histology of the human growth plate

Abstract

This paper describes a study in the human femur of the relationship between cell division in growth cartilage and overall bone growth. Growth rates for the distal femur from birth to eighteen years were determined from serial radiographs available from the Harpenden Growth Study; An average of 1-4 cm/year was found for the ages of five to eight years. The development of the growth plate is illustrated in a series of photomicrographs of femur sections. These sections were also used for quantitative histology; The length of the proliferation zone was estimated from cell counts to be twenty-four cells per column. On the basis of this value and the measured growth rate, an approximate mean cycle time of twenty days was found for the proliferating cells of the human growth plate. Since the corresponding cycle time is two days for rodent growth plates, which also have a different structure, it is unwise to extrapolate the findings in this tissue from mouse to man.

Quantitative Analysis of the Growth of the hip jo Int:A Radiological Study

“…Our investigations suggest that the rate of growth of the bone ends forming the hip joint has a slightly decreasing teridency. The slowing down of the growth of the femoral head is not as great as observed by Anderson et al (1963Anderson et al ( , 1964 but is fairly close to the findings of Kember & Sissons (1976).…”

“…The slowing down of the growth of the femoral head occurs, according to our investigations, after the age of 13 years whereas the same phenomenon can be observed in the longitudinal growth of the femur after the age of 14 years (Anderson et al 1963, 1964, Kember & Sissons 1976, Tupman 1962.…”

A Review of the Actual Knowledge of the Processes Governing Growth and Development of Long Bones

“…From the time of appearance of the ossification center, the physeal growth is governed by the interstitial chondrocytes proliferation and by the endochondral ossification advancement from the center to the periphery [20][21][22][23]. The progressive occupation of the epiphyseal volume by the ossification center (Figures 2a-2d) showed that the rate of advancement of the endochondral ossification is faster than expansion driven by the cartilage interstitial growth.…”

“…However, this interstitial growth, even if at a slower rate, remains active for the whole growth period as documented by the articular cartilage expansion when the epiphysis presents with its definitive shape, but further size increment is going on. [23,28,29,30]. Less attention has been paid to the epiphyseal ossification, which starts later with a spherical center and presents with the same pattern of chondrocytes piling, but with a three-dimensional asset.…”

Growth in width of the metacarpals — an investigation in human fetuses

“…The process of growth in length of bones [3,5,10,18,[22][23][24] has received considerably more attention than the mechanism of growth in width. Researchers examining the growth in width tried mainly to find out whether the increase in diameter occurred by interstitial [3,4,7,8,16], by appositional growth [1, 6,9,14,17,19,21,22,24,25] or both [12].…”