Unlike the ground bone specimens studied in the last lab, the specimens of two small bones on slide 34 and the bone on slide 129 and 104 were decalcified chemically and then mounted and sectioned with a microtome.

• After staining with H&E all the cells are readily distinguishable.
• Bone Slide 129 and 104shows osteons very well.
• Slide 34 is mostly cancellous bone, but a small area of compact bone is like that of Fig. 8-7.
  • Find this area and compare the appearance of the osteons to those you saw in the ground specimen on slide 32.
• The rest of the bone tissue present on slide 34 is cancellous bone (Fig. 8-7) and one specimen was undergoing fracture repair. There is much to identify and study on this slide.

Locate and carefully study the following structures on slide 34:

• Active and inactive periosteum (Fig. 8-6),
• Marrow (Fig. 8-6 and 8-8),
• Osteoblasts and osteoid (Fig. 8-2 and 8-3),
• Multinucleated osteoclasts which may be in Howship’s lacunae (Fig. 8-5), and
• The very delicate layer of endosteum that separates the boney trabecula from the marrow (Fig. 8-6).

What are the functional relationships among the periosteum, osteoblasts, osteoid, osteocytes, and osteoclasts?

How are these relationships important in the process of bone repair?

Ossification centers.