Pattern of membranous and chondral bone growth. A roentgen stereophotogrammetric analysis in the rabbit.

To elucidate longitudinal tubular bone growth patterns in relation to craniofacial development, nine 4-week-old male New Zealand white rabbits received tantalum implants in the calvarial bones and in the proximal and distal tibial epiphyses. The animals were examined by roentgen stereophotogrammetry. The rapid growth rate deceleration pertained to all growth regions studied, except the sagittal suture. A brief period of under-nutrition highlighted the parallel in growth rates between the frontonasal suture (associated to the facial skeleton) and the tibia. The neurocranial coronal suture exhibited a different growth pattern, presumably related to neural tissue expansion, which was also observed to rapidly react to nutritional deficiency. Tibial growth was found to sensitively reveal influences of somatic development. Hence, it might be used to optimize growth evaluations.