Distribution and property of nerve fibers in human long bone tissue.
OBJECTIVE
To observe the distribution of the nerve fibers in the bone tissue and the entry points of these fibers into the bone.


METHODS
The adult tibia was used for the ground sections which were afterwards made into the slice sections by decalcification in ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA). The ground sections were stained in silver and the slice sections were stained in silver and haematoxylin and eosin (HE) respectively. Then, the samples of the transmission electron microscope and the atomic force microscope were made and observed.


RESULTS
In the human long bone tissue, many nerve fibers were distributed in the membrane, cortical bone, cancellous bone and marrow. The nerve fibers entered the bone from the nutrient foramen, and passed through the nutrient canal, Haversian's canal and Volkmann's canal, and finally into the bone marrow. In the nutrient canal, the nerve fibers, mainly the medullary nerve fibers, followed the blood vessel into the bone. In the cortical bone, the nerve fibers also followed the blood vessels and were mainly distributed along Haversian's canal and Volkmann's canal. In the bone trabecular and bone marrow, there were many nerve fiber endings arranged around the blood vessels, mainly around the tunica media of medium-size arteries in the marrow and around capillary blood vessels, and a few scattered in the bone marrow. There were sporadic nerve endings in epiphyseal plate and no nerve fibers permeated epiphysis to diaphysis. No distribution of nerve fibers could be found in cartilaginous part.


CONCLUSIONS
There are many nerve fibers in bone and the nerve passageway is nutrient foramen, Volkman's canal, Haversian's canal and bone marrow.
Chen
Bin
B
Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical Uuniversity, Guangzhou 510515, China.
Pei
Guo-xian
GX
Jin
Dan
D
Wei
Kuan-hai
KH
Qin
Yu
Y
Liu
Qing-si
QS
D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D009412:Nerve Fibers / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D013977:Tibia / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000294:innervation / Q000648:ultrastructure