Cummaudo Marco, Raffone Caterina, Cappella Annalisa, Márquez-Grant Nicholas, Cattaneo Cristina
LABANOF (Laboratorio di Antropologia e Odontologia Forense) Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, via Mangiagalli 37, 20133, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy; Cranfield Forensic Institute, Cranfield University, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham SN6 8LA, UK.
LABANOF (Laboratorio di Antropologia e Odontologia Forense) Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, via Mangiagalli 37, 20133, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy.
Leg Med (Tokyo). 2020 Apr 23;45:101711. doi: 10.1016/j.legalmed.2020.101711.
In the last decades, the histomorphometric analysis of bone tissue has been utilized to develop equations for species discrimination of fragmentary bone. Although this technique showed promising results, its main limitation concerns the lack of knowledge on the histomorphometric variability which may exist between different bones of the skeleton. In a previous study, we demonstrated a significant histomorphological variability in different bones of the same individual and even in different sections of the same bone. The present study aimed at investigating the extent of intra-individual variability in bone histomorphometry throughout the human adult skeleton and areas of a single bone. Samples were taken along an entire medieval male adult human skeleton (aged between 26 and 45 years), including long, flat, irregular and sesamoid bones for a total of 49 cross-sections. The histomorphometric analysis revealed that the size of both Haversian systems and Haversian canals were statistically significantly larger in long and irregular bones compared to flat bones. Moreover, osteons were generally bigger in the diaphysis compared to the proximal and distal metaphyses, whereas Haversian canals showed a higher uniformity in the different portions of each bone. The present study has highlighted the importance of conducting similar studies on both human and nonhuman skeletons at different stages of skeletal maturity in order to shed light on the extent of variability in the size of osteons and Haversian canals. This, in fact, represents an important prerequisite to develop reliable histological methods for species discrimination of fragmented bone.
在过去几十年中，骨组织的组织形态计量学分析已被用于开发用于鉴别碎骨物种的方程。尽管这项技术显示出了有前景的结果，但其主要局限性在于缺乏对骨骼不同骨头之间可能存在的组织形态计量学变异性的了解。在先前的一项研究中，我们证明了同一个体的不同骨头甚至同一骨头的不同切片中存在显著的组织形态学变异性。本研究旨在调查整个成年人体骨骼以及单块骨头不同区域内骨组织形态计量学的个体内变异性程度。沿着一具完整的中世纪成年男性人类骨骼（年龄在26至45岁之间）采集样本，包括长骨、扁骨、不规则骨和籽骨，共49个横截面。组织形态计量学分析显示，与扁骨相比，长骨和不规则骨中的哈弗斯系统和哈弗斯管的尺寸在统计学上显著更大。此外，骨干中的骨单位通常比近端和远端干骺端的更大，而哈弗斯管在每块骨头的不同部分表现出更高的均匀性。本研究强调了在骨骼成熟的不同阶段对人类和非人类骨骼进行类似研究的重要性，以便了解骨单位和哈弗斯管大小的变异性程度。事实上，这是开发用于鉴别碎骨物种的可靠组织学方法的重要前提。
