Development of the Second Ossification Center in Mice Calcanei

Open Access
- Author:
- Ranalli, Jamie Sara
- Area of Honors:
- Anthropology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Philip L Reno, Thesis Supervisor
Timothy Michael Ryan, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- pisiform
calcaneus
growth plate
ossification
Primary Center of Ossification
Secondary center of Ossification - Abstract:
- The calcaneus, or the heel bone, is an extremely important bone that is located in the foot of most terrestrial vertebrates. It allows creatures to walk, run, dance, and move around. To fit such a specific function, the calcaneus has a unique shape and growth process that cause it to stand out from the rest of the bones in the foot. Unlike short bones, the calcaneus does possess a growth plate as seen in the long bones. Yet unlike a typical long bone, the calcaneus only possesses one growth plate, not two, which is visible at the posterior end of the bone. This one growth plate allows for two distinct centers of ossification to form on either side of it, yet the timing of this growth has not yet been mapped in mice. Here we study the stages of development in the calcaneus of mice, and then compare it to those found in similar studies previously conducted on the pisiform, by Kjosness and colleagues (2015), which is a bone located in the wrist and helps support a similar function in the forelimbs during quadrupedal locomotion. The research in this study discovered that the first center of ossification in the calcaneus is present at birth or P0, the growth plate emerges and becomes active by P4, the second center of ossification develops at P11, and the growth plate is no longer active by the age of P30. We observe generally similar process of ossification compared to the pisiform, however the timeline of these developments are not entirely synchronous for the calcaneus takes slightly longer to grow and mature than does the pisiform.