Library · Anatomy
Compact bone
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A bone is not the same all the way through. On the outside it has a dense layer, compact bone, also called cortical bone, and inside it is the other variety, trabecular bone. Compact bone makes up most of the skeleton: about eighty percent of all the bone in the body.
Dense does not mean solid like stone. Under the microscope it is made of osteons, the functional units of bone tissue: concentric rings of collagen, a protein that gives strength, arranged around a central canal. That canal is called the Haversian canal, and it carries an artery, a vein and a nerve inside.
Picture a solid wall run through by thin tubes with vessels inside.
That architecture is what holds up under load: compact bone resists bending, twisting and compression far better than trabecular bone, and it plays little part in metabolism. It is the one that forms the outer shell around trabecular bone.
In brief
Compact bone, or cortical bone, is the dense variety of bone and makes up about eighty percent of all the bone in the body.
Its unit is the osteon: concentric lamellae of collagen around a central canal, the Haversian canal, which carries an artery, a vein and a nerve.
A solid wall run through by thin tubes with vessels inside.
It resists bending, twisting and compression far better than trabecular bone, and forms its outer shell; it plays little part in metabolism.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingHistology, Bone, StatPearlsPublished
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