Description
Bones form part the endoskeleton of the body and are lightweight and strong. Bones produce red and white blood cells and store minerals most notably calcium and phosphorus and also stores important growth factors. The bony framework of a body consists of 206 bones, 80 in the trunk and 126 in the limbs. There are 230 joints in the body. More than half the bones in the human body are in the hands and feet. The human hand has 27 bones and the foot has 26 bones. A newborn baby has 350 bones. Almost every seven years, the body replaces the equivalent of an entirely new skeleton. The largest bone is the pelvis, or hipbone. The smallest is the stirrup in the ear, hardly larger than a grain of rice. The jawbone is the hardest bone.
Function
Mechanical
Colour
White.
Shape
Various
Location
Within the body under the skin
Bones form part the endoskeleton of the body and are lightweight and strong. Bones produce red and white blood cells and store minerals most notably calcium and phosphorus and also stores important growth factors. The bony framework of a body consists of 206 bones, 80 in the trunk and 126 in the limbs. There are 230 joints in the body. More than half the bones in the human body are in the hands and feet. The human hand has 27 bones and the foot has 26 bones. A newborn baby has 350 bones. Almost every seven years, the body replaces the equivalent of an entirely new skeleton. The largest bone is the pelvis, or hipbone. The smallest is the stirrup in the ear, hardly larger than a grain of rice. The jawbone is the hardest bone.
Function
Mechanical
- Protection — bones can serve to protect internal organs, such as the skull protecting the brain or the ribs protecting the heart and lungs.
- Structure — bones provide a frame to keep the body supported.
- Movement — bones, skeletal muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints function together to generate and transfer forces so that individual body parts or the whole body can be manipulated in three-dimensional space.
- Sound transduction — bones are important in the mechanical aspect hearing.
- Blood production — the marrow, located within the medullary cavity of long bones and interstices of cancellous bone, produces blood cells in a process called hematopoiesis.
- Mineral storage — bones act as reserves of minerals important for the body, most notably calcium and phosphorus.
- Growth factor storage — mineralized bone matrix stores important growth factors such as insulin-like growth factors, transforming growth factor, bone morphogenetic proteins and others.
- Fat storage — the yellow bone marrow acts as a storage reserve of fatty acids.
- Acid-base balance — bone buffers the blood against excessive pH changes.
- Detoxification — bone tissues can also store heavy metals and other foreign elements, removing them from the blood and reducing their effects on other tissues.
- Endocrine organ — bone controls phosphate metabolism by releasing fibroblast growth factor – 23 (FGF-23), which acts on kidneys to reduce phosphate reabsorption. Bone cells also release a hormone called osteocalcin, which contributes to the regulation of blood sugar (glucose) and fat deposition.
Colour
White.
Shape
Various
Location
Within the body under the skin
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