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Article: Bone
- Article from:
- Biology
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Bone
Bone serves many important functions. Bones support the body, protect underlying organs, and provide a movable skeleton against which the muscles can work. In addition, bone forms all the cells of the blood, plus takes part in calcium and acid-base balance, and storage of trace elements (such as zinc) needed by cells elsewhere.
Bone Structure
Bone is created from
osseous connective tissue
. Like other types of connective tissue, osseous tissue is composed of relatively sparse cells surrounded by an extracellular network, or
matrix
. Bone matrix is a tough, resilient mixture of
protein
and
minerals
. Osteoblasts, a type of bone cell, secrete proteins into the matrix, which ...