Читать книгу Fractures in the Horse - Группа авторов - Страница 22

The skeleton is an extraordinary organ that has evolved to optimize its structure to functional demands. The strength and rigidity of its individual components, bones, maintain the body'’s form, provide a series of interconnected levers upon which forces generated by muscles can act to effect movement and locomotion and afford physical protection to vital internal organs. In addition, it serves as a reservoir for essential minerals, houses haematopoietic tissue, contributes to acid–base balance, serves as a fat repository, sequesters certain toxins (heavy metals) from the circulation and acts as an endocrine organ with released hormones having systemic effects. Furthermore, it is dynamic. Some of its component parts undergo structural adaptation in response to the variation in the loads they experience throughout life, while others, principally those evolved for primary protective functions such as the skull, maintain a similar architecture irrespective of changes in load. The architecture of bone from molecular composition to shape and size of whole bones is maintained by cellular mechanisms that effect modelling, remodelling and repair on an ongoing basis and have the capacity to form large segments of new tissue to fill defects created by injury.

This chapter focuses on the features of a bone that are essential to its mechanical functions.