Static and dynamic osteogenesis: two different types of bone formation

The onset and development of intramembranous ossification centers in the cranial vault and around the shaft of long bones in five newborn rabbits and six chick embryos were studied by light (LM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Two subsequent different types of bone formation were observed. We respectively named them static and dynamic osteogenesis, because the former is characterized by pluristratified cords of unexpectedly stationary osteoblasts, which differentiate at a fairly constant distance (28+/-0.4 microm) from the blood capillaries, and the latter by the well-known typical monostratified laminae of movable osteoblasts. No significant structural and ultrastructural differences were found between stationary and movable osteoblasts, all being polarized secretory cells joined by gap junctions. However, unlike in typical movable osteoblastic laminae, stationary osteoblasts inside the cords are irregularly arranged, variously polarized and transform into osteocytes, clustered within confluent lacunae, in the same place where they differentiate. Static osteogenesis is devoted to the building of the first trabecular bony framework having, with respect to the subsequent bone apposition by typical movable osteoblasts, the same supporting function as calcified trabeculae in endochondral ossification. In conclusion, it appears that while static osteogenesis increases the bone external size, dynamic osteogenesis is mainly involved in bone compaction, i.e., in filling primary haversian spaces with primary osteons.