Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
B
A
(a)
n
n
n
n
(b)
(c)
Figure 1.17
Innervation of bone marrow. (a) Plexus of
nerve fibers around a vein in the marrow of rabbit tibia. (b)
Portion of nerve plexus around an artery in the marrow of
rabbit tibia. (c) Plexus of nerve fibers touching arteriola in
the marrow of chicken tibia. The thinnest nerve fibers, de-
noted by
n
, penetrate in the pulp of marrow. After [118].
1.3.3
Bone Innervation
Bone is not only richly supplied with blood but is also abundantly innervated. The
study of bone innervation dates back to the first half of the nineteenth century when
Gros described the distribution of nerves in the femur of a horse [117]. Even early
morphological studies applying classic histological methods, such as methylene
blue staining and silver impregnation, revealed an intense innervation pattern
of the bone in mature animals and humans, cf. also [118-120]. That the bone
marrow is innervated is known since 1901 when Ottolenghi discussed the presence
of nerves surrounding marrow arteries with fibers passing into the parenchyma,
