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Tracking adolescent bone remodeling through sex-specific femoral cross-sectional changes
Julia Muñoz-Guarinos1, Laura Rodríguez1,2, José Miguel Carretero1,3
1Laboratorio de Evolución Humana, Universidad de Burgos, Burgos, Spain.
Anatomical Record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007)
|November 10, 2025
Summary
Adolescent bone development shows medullary contraction, a reduction in medullary area (MA), particularly in females. This skeletal change varies by femur region, with the midneck showing more plasticity than the midshaft.
Area of Science:
- Paleoanthropology
- Skeletal Biology
- Human Osteology
Background:
- Adolescence involves significant skeletal changes driven by hormonal shifts.
- Understanding femoral cross-sectional geometry evolution is key to reconstructing life-history processes.
- Medullary contractions (reductions in medullary area) during adolescence are not well-characterized.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the presence and sex-specific patterns of medullary contractions in the femur during adolescence.
- To examine regional variability in medullary area (MA) and cortical area (CA) changes relative to total cross-sectional area (TA) at the femoral midshaft and midneck.
- To explore the influence of pubertal maturation on femoral geometry using developmental and structural indicators.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of 75 femora from a medieval Spanish population, categorized into four maturity groups.
- Sex estimation using macroscopic and enamel peptide analysis (amelogenin).
- Extraction of cross-sectional properties (TA, CA, MA) from CT scans and statistical modeling (multiple linear regression) to assess relationships between variables and the effects of sex and maturity.
Main Results:
- At the midneck, both CA and MA increased with TA, with greater medullary expansion in females.
- At the midshaft, MA showed steeper increases relative to TA in females and adults, despite smaller medullary cavities.
- Females exhibited attenuated proportional increases in CA relative to TA, especially at the midshaft, indicating medullary contraction.
Conclusions:
- Evidence supports medullary contractions during late adolescence, particularly in females, with regional variations in expression.
- The femoral midneck displays greater morphological plasticity compared to the more canalized midshaft.
- Detecting medullary contractions is critical near peak bone mass and may be transient, necessitating focused sampling in future studies.
Keywords:
adolescent skeletal developmentbioarchaeologybone growth plasticitycortical bone distributionendosteal modelingpeak bone massMore Related Videos
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