Bone tissue

Most people think of the word connective tissue as fascia at best, not bones. However, bones are also a specialized form of connective or supportive tissue. Bone tissue is also composed of cells and matrix. The uniqueness and the difference from other connective tissues lie in the fact that the matrix binds to minerals and not to water as is usually the case in our body.

What is bone tissue?

Bone consists of around 60% calcium salts, 30% (collagenous) fibers, as well as 10% water and various cells. Due to its high mineral content, the bone is one of the hardest structures in our body. This mineralization makes diffusion processes impossible, necessitating the exchange and removal of metabolic products through a well-branched vascular system. This is one reason why bone is so well vascularized – and therefore relatively sensitive to pain, but also good at regenerating and healing.

Functions of bone tissue

Bones have a very versatile and important function for the human body:

• they support us

• they protect us (e.g., the thorax protects the internal organs)

• they serve as attachment sites for muscles and ligaments

• they have a role in movement as they form the joints

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

• they store calcium and phosphate

Bone growth and remodeling

The growth of bones (including remodeling) is largely controlled by sex hormones: testosterone, the male sex hormone, promotes increased protein synthesis and thus stimulates bone cells to increase osteoid and bone formation. In addition to men's genetically higher muscle mass that pulls on the bones, this is a reason why men have thicker and denser bones than women.

Estrogen inhibits cartilage growth at the growth plate and stimulates its ossification. This ends the longitudinal growth of the bone - usually earlier in women - which is why they are often shorter than men.

Osteoporosis & More

Immobilization - due to various causes - leads to a rapid demineralization with a pathophysiological change of bone tissue, known as bone loss or osteoporosis. Aging processes, reduced estrogen production in women during menopause, as well as a poor, modern Western diet are further causes resulting in reduced bone strength. This excessive bone breakdown can lead to fractures (e.g., femoral neck fracture) or spontaneous fractures (e.g., vertebral body fracture), with sometimes serious consequences.

What does our bone need?

 An improvement in bone quality can be achieved by increasing mineralization. It is now agreed that increased loads such as strength training and axial loads (pressure on bones) lead to higher mineralization of bone tissue - and result in higher stability of the same. A possible approach to actively prevent osteoporosis (even) in older age.

For healthy bone development, we also need a balanced diet with calcium intake and vitamins C (for collagen synthesis) and D (enabling calcitonin absorption), as well as sunlight...

Philosophy: To live is to move.

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Learn more about our hyaline joint cartilage in another blog.