Three-Dimensional Analysis of the Bone

Abstract

There are various structures such as micro-sized bone cell and nano-sized collagen fibrils in the bone tissue. The bone tissue is maintained and bone metabolism is regulated by interaction of these structures. Since various diseases are caused without maintenance of the bone tissue and regulation of the bone metabolism properly, it is very important to analyze the microstructures inside of the bone tissue three-dimensionally. We are able to study biological significance of these microstructures more deeply by three-dimensional morphometry. In this paper, we describe three-dimensional analysis of the osteocyte network by the confocal laser microscopy, and the collagen fibrils of the bone tissue by the orthogonally arranged FIB-SEM, which is used our laboratory.