Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 24, 2026

Culturing and Measuring Fetal and Newborn Murine Long Bones
Published on: April 26, 2019
Interstitial growth of bone revisited
1Section of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry and Division of Plastic Surgery, School of Medicine, University of California and Division of Plastic Surgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, USA. BSarnat@earthlink.net
Abstract:
The distance between two or more metallic implants placed within the same flat bones (mandible, nasal, frontal, hyoplastron, hypoplastron) of young pigs, rabbits, and turtles followed by means of serial radiographs, remained the same for periods as long as 546 days. Thus, it is concluded that there is no interstitial growth. In 1743, Duhamel demonstrated that long bones grow at their ends and that there is no interstitial growth. This report is unique in that it demonstrates by use of radiopaque implants and serial radiographs that there is no interstitial growth of flat bones, which grow by apposition and resorption, and not endochondrally, such as occurs in long bones.
Related Concept Videos
Bone Formation by Intramembranous Ossification
The process begins when mesenchymal cells in the embryonic skeleton gather together and differentiate into osteogenic cells, which then develop into...
Bone Remodeling
Bone Formation by Endochondral Ossification
Growth of Cartilage and Bone Tissue
Changes in the Appendicular Skeleton with Age
Initially, the limb buds consist of a core of mesenchyme covered by a layer of ectoderm. The ectoderm at the end of the limb bud thickens to form a narrow crest called the apical ectodermal ridge. This ridge stimulates the underlying...
Hormones and Bone Tissue
Hormones That Influence Osteoblasts and/or Maintain the Matrix
Several hormones are necessary for controlling bone growth and maintaining the bone matrix. The pituitary gland secretes growth hormone (GH), which, as its name implies, controls bone growth. This happens in several ways: first, it triggers chondrocyte...

