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Collaboration with the Niigata Bone Sciences Institute

This is a brief outline of bone histomorphometry and the activities, and the background of the Niigata Bone Sciences Institute.

Bone histomorphometry is a field of quantitative morphology of bone as a tissue, with a history of approximately 50 years since late 1950s. Using tetracycline antibiotics as a timemarker and undemineralized thin bone sections, it can assess histological dynamics of bone turnover, one of the important components of bone.
The tetracycline deposits in a site of bone formation and can be observed as a yellow line in lamellar bone formation under a fluorescent light microscope. Double labeling makes it possible to acquire the mineral appositional rate (MAR) and bone formation rate (BFR) in various referents. With many primary parameters and derived indices, the bone histomorphometry can make it possible to understand bone dynamics, which show bone turnover occurring constantly and continuously in both resorption and formation. The tissue level bone metabolism can be understood with its unique concepts, such as Basic Multicellular Unit (BMU), activation frequency, high turnover vs. low turnover osteoporosis, bone formation and resorption period, different information from cellular and molecular level physiology.

In recent years bone research, particularly research into osteoporosis, is increasingly concerned with not only bone quantity but also bone quality. With bone histomorphometry we can identify the components of the quality of bone. Not only clinical materials, such as biopsied iliac bone specimen, but also the bones of monkeys, dogs, rats and mice can be objects of quantitative assessment. Recently we have measured more bone specimens of knock-out mice than rats.
In bone histomorphometry, appropriate labeling, dose, time, and interval as well as biopsy by skilled hand are most essential to get reliable and correct results for assessment.