MEAN FORMATION TIME OF HUMAN OSTEONS

Abstract

With the aid of 19 doubly tetracycline-labelled human bones the mean daily linear decrease in the radius of Haversian canals of newly forming osteons was measured. The mean outside diameters of the Haversian canals were measured on a larger number of human bones. From these measurements the calculated mean time of Haversian system formation in ribs is 46±37 days at age 7 years and 79±63 days at age 43. Compared with those for ribs, the formation times seem to be longer in the long bones of the appendicular skeleton.