Three-dimensional structure of minipig fibrolamellar bone: adaptation to axial loading.

Fibrolamellar bone is transiently produced by large, fast growing mammals. The fibrolamellar bone unit is initially formed by elaboration of a network of blood vessels. This is followed by the deposition of a thin, porous and hypercalcified layer, then by the infilling of the vascular cavities by the sequential deposition of a relatively thick rapidly forming bone on both sides of the hypercalcified layer, and finally by lamellar bone. We investigated the 3D structure of the collagenous network of fibrolamellar bone from the femora of a young minipig using mainly the FIB-SEM dual beam microscope and the Serial Surface View method. This enabled us to identify the fibril orientation, the canalicular network organization and other structural motifs within each element of the fibrolamellar unit. The first formed primary hypercalcified layer (PHL) is composed of fibril arrays and multiple small pores, and appears to have an isotropic structure. The major bone component is deposited on both sides of the PHL, and is composed of collagen fibrils with a preferred orientation, mainly aligned parallel to the bone long axis. This bone component is therefore parallel-fibered bone and not woven bone. We also observed that the collagen fibers are organized into bundles. The lamellar bone has most of its collagen fibrils aligned with the bone long axis. This study therefore shows that the large majority of collagen fibrils in fibrolamellar bone are aligned with the bone long axis. This anisotropic structure therefore appears to be adapted to loading along the bone long axis.

Three-dimensional imaging of collagen fibril organization in rat circumferential lamellar bone using a dual beam electron microscope reveals ordered and disordered sub-lamellar structures.

Lamellar bone is a major component of most mammalian skeletons. A prominent component of individual lamellae are parallel arrays of mineralized type I collagen fibrils, organized in a plywood like motif. Here we use a dual beam microscope and the serial surface view (SSV) method to investigate the three dimensional collagen organization of circumferential lamellar bone from rat tibiae after demineralization and osmium staining. Fast Fourier transform analysis is used to quantitatively identify the mean collagen array orientations and local collagen fibril dispersion. Based on collagen fibril array orientations and variations in fibril dispersion, we identify 3 distinct sub-lamellar structural motifs: a plywood-like fanning sub-lamella, a unidirectional sub-lamella and a disordered sub-lamella. We also show that the disordered sub-lamella is less mineralized than the other sub-lamellae. The hubs and junctions of the canalicular network, which connect radially oriented canaliculi, are intimately associated with the disordered sub-lamella. We also note considerable variations in the proportions of these 3 sub-lamellar structural elements among different lamellae. This new application of Serial Surface View opens the way to quantitatively compare lamellar bone from different sources, and to clarify the 3-dimensional structures of other bone types, as well as other biological structural materials.