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Cortical Vascular Canals in Human Mandible and Other Bones

¹ Dental Institute, Barts and The London Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry, New Road, London, UK, E1 1BB;
² Cancer Research UK, Lincoln’s Inn Fields Laboratories, London WC2A 3PX; and
³ UCL Eastman Dental Institute, London WC1X 8LD, UK

^* corresponding author, v.j.kingsmill{at}qmul.ac.uk

The human mandible is highly mineralized. We hypothesized that this is related to the local vascularity of the bone. This could not be examined directly, but, as a surrogate, intracortical vascular canal spaces of the human mandible were studied so that we could determine possible relationships with age, gender, location, dental status, and tissue mineralization. Canal numbers, area, and volume fraction were calculated from quantitative backscattered electron images of human mandibles aged 16–96 years. Data were compared with calvaria, maxilla, lumbar vertebra, femoral neck, and iliac crest. In the mandible, the buccal aspect of the midline was the most porous, the canals being larger and more numerous. The cortical porosity in the posterior of partially dentate mandibles was significantly greater than that of either dentate or edentate mandibles, and there was a significant increase in the size of canals in the mandible with increasing age. Female mandibles had more porous cortices. No relationship was found between cortical porosity and the degree of bone mineralization.

KEY WORDS: cortical porosity • scanning electron microscopy • osteoporosis • age changes • bone histomorphometry