In the long bones, endochondral bone formation proceeds via the development of a diaphyseal primary ossification centre (POC) and an epiphyseal secondary ossification centre (SOC). The growth plate, the essential structure for longitudinal bone growth, is located between these two sites of ossification. Basically, endochondral bone development depends upon neovascularization, and the early gene...

INTRODUCTION: Bone regeneration occurs through a series of spatiotemporal events influenced by the mechanical environment, various local and systemic factors, and the embryological origin of the specific bone. Long bone fractures treated with flexible fixation heal primarily through endochondral ossification. Following an initial inflammatory phase, mesenchymal cells proliferate and undergo cho...

INTRODUCTION Fracture repair constitutes the sequence of cell biological events following bone injury and recapitulates the steps of endochondral ossification observed during embryonic skeletal development and growth. Because of the different phases of fracture healing (inflammation, cartilage formation and remodeling) the fracture callus provides an excellent tool for analysis of cartilage and...

3 INSERTION OF THE CORACO-ACROMIAL LIGAMENT IN THE ACROMION: HISTOLOGIC STUDY OF THE DEGENERATIVE ENDOCHONDRAL OSSIFICATION O. Lech, MD, J. Barbosa, MD, A. Gailit, Jr, MD, and A. Marcolan, MD; Instituto de Ortopedia e Traumatologia de Passo Fundo, RS, Brazil The authors evaluate the incidence of degenerative endochondral ossification at the insertion of the coraco-acromial ligament (CAL) in the...

Extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling is important during bone development and repair. Because matrix metalloproteinase 13 (MMP13, collagenase-3) plays a role in long bone development, we have examined its role during adult skeletal repair. In this study we find that MMP13 is expressed by hypertrophic chondrocytes and osteoblasts in the fracture callus. We demonstrate that MMP13 is required for...

Recapitulation of embryonic endochondral bone formation is a promising alternative approach to bone tissue engineering. However, the time-consuming process is one of the reasons the approach is unpractical. Here, we aimed at accelerating the in vitro endochondral ossification process of tissue engineering by using a pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF). The rat bone marrow-derived stem cells wer...

One of the crucial steps in endochondral bone formation is the replacement of a cartilage matrix produced by chondrocytes with bone trabeculae made by osteoblasts. However, the precise sources of osteoblasts responsible for trabecular bone formation have not been fully defined. To investigate whether cells derived from hypertrophic chondrocytes contribute to the osteoblast pool in trabecular bo...

Introduction Adult human Mesenchymal Stem Cells (hMSC) have typically been used to form bone tissue by a process resembling membranous ossification. However, long bones develop through an endochondral process, which consists in the formation of a hypertrophic cartilaginous template and its substitution with bone tissue. To date, endochondral bone tissue has been obtained only with murine Embryo...