The histopathological study of osteoporosis

The osteoporosis is characterized by the imbalance between the activity of the osteoblasts, the bone forming cells, and the osteoclasts, the cells that resorb the bone tissue, imbalance that favors the osteoclasts. As a conclusion, in the case of osteoporosis, for the same volume, the bone is less compact and more fragile. The objective of our study is to make a histological evaluation of the different elements of the bone tissue in many 47 bone samples: 27 bone fragments were collected from the head and the femoral head of patients who required hip arthroplasty and 20 bone fragments were collected from the vertebral body of dead patients. The results of our study emphasized the thinned trabeculae of the bone that lost continuity, the preferential resorption of the horizontal trabeculae, the consecutive trabecular anisotropy and the reduction of the trabecular connectivity with enlarged areolae and the adipose degeneration of the marrow. One notices in the osteoporosis a reduction of the trabecular network connectivity directly proportional with the stage of the illness; thus, we determined a strong reduction of the trabecular connectivity in advanced osteoporosis stages. The growth aspects of the medular adiposity, associated with the intratrabecular connectivity concurs to highlight the functional connection between bone and marrow. The diminution of the medullar cellularity together with its enrichment in fat cells has negative outcomes on the bone.