Describe how oxygen is carried from outside a bone to an individual osteocyte.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Blood vessels enter through the periosteum into a perforating canal. The vessel may follow along the axis of the bone through a central canal. Osteocytes have long, almost dendritic-like extensions or arms that reach out through tiny holes called canaliculi. The canaliculi connect one cell to another and to the central canal. Oxygen would leave the blood vessel in the central canal and travel through the canaliculi from cell to cell until it reaches the cell in question.