Bone tissue

When most people hear the word connective tissue, they usually think of fascia at best, but not bone. Yet bones are also a specialized form of connective—or supportive—tissue. Bone tissue is also made up of cells and a matrix. However, the special feature and the difference from other connective tissues is that the matrix binds to minerals rather than to water, as is normally the case elsewhere in your body.

What is bone tissue?

Bone consists of around 60% calcium salts, 30% (collagenous) fibers, and 10% water and various cells. Due to its high mineral content, bone is one of the hardest structures in your body. However, this mineralization makes diffusion processes impossible, meaning that the exchange and removal of metabolic products must take place via a well-branched vascular system. This is one reason why bone has such a rich blood supply—and is therefore relatively sensitive to pain, but also heals and regenerates well.

Functions of bone tissue

Bones have a very versatile and important function for your body:

• they support you

• they protect you (e.g., the ribcage protects internal organs)

• they serve as attachment sites for muscles and ligaments

• they have a movement function because they form the joints

• bones produce blood cells and stem cells in the red bone marrow

• they store calcium and phosphate

Bone building and breakdown

Bone growth (meaning both building and breakdown) is largely controlled by sex hormones: testosterone, the male sex hormone, promotes increased protein synthesis and thus also stimulates bone cells to produce more osteoid and bone. Along with men’s genetically higher muscle mass pulling on the bones, this is one reason why men have thicker, stronger bones than women.

Estrogen inhibits cartilage growth at the growth plate and stimulates its ossification. As a result, longitudinal bone growth ends—usually earlier in women—making them often shorter than men.

Osteoporosis & Co.

Immobilization—due to various causes—leads to severe demineralization in a very short time, accompanied by pathophysiological changes in the bone tissue; this is referred to as bone loss or osteoporosis. Aging processes, decreased estrogen production during menopause in women, as well as an improper, modern Western diet are considered further causes and result in reduced bone load capacity. This excessive bone loss can lead to fractures (e.g., femoral neck fractures) or spontaneous fractures (e.g., vertebral body fractures), sometimes with severe consequences.

What do your bones need?

 Bone quality can be improved by increasing mineralization. It is now widely agreed that increased load, such as strength training and axial loading (pressure on the bone), causes higher mineralization of the bone tissue—and thus results in greater stability. This is a promising approach for actively preventing osteoporosis, even later in life.

For healthy bone formation, you also need a balanced diet with calcium intake and vitamin C (for collagen synthesis) and D (enables calcitonin uptake), as well as sunlight…

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Find out more about your hyaline articular cartilage in another blog post.

You can learn more about this on our medical training therapy (MTT) page.