Journal
ANATOMICAL RECORD-ADVANCES IN INTEGRATIVE ANATOMY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
Volume -, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/ar.25368
Keywords
aging; bat; bone; collagen fiber orientation; mouse; polarized light microscopy
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This study compares the changes in collagen fiber orientations (CFO) in wing bones of big brown bats and laboratory mice. The results show that big brown bats have unique patterns of CFO, with longitudinally arranged and more anisotropic bone tissue in older individuals. In contrast, mice did not show consistent age-related changes in bone tissue. This study provides a methodological foundation for future quantitative evaluation of bone tissue architecture in different mammals.
As bones age in most mammals, they typically become more fragile. This state of bone fragility is often associated with more homogenous collagen fiber orientations (CFO). Unlike most mammals, bats maintain mechanically competent bone throughout their lifespans, but little is known of positional and age-related changes in CFO within wing bones. This study tests the hypothesis that age-related changes in CFO in big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) differ from those of the standard mammalian model for skeletal aging, the C57BL/6 laboratory mouse. We used data from quantitative polarized light microscopy (qPLM) to compare CFO across the lifespan of long-lived big brown bats and age matched C57BL/6 mice. Eptesicus and C57BL/6 mice displayed idiosyncratic patterns of CFO. Consistent age-related changes were only apparent in the outer cortical bone of Eptesicus, where bone tissue is more longitudinally arranged and more anisotropic in older individuals. Both taxa displayed a ring of more transversely oriented bone tissue surrounding the medullary cavity. In Eptesicus, this tissue represents a greater proportion of the overall cross-section, and is more clearly helically aligned (arranged at 45 degrees to the bone long axis) than similar bone tissue in mice. Bat wing bones displayed a proximodistal gradient in CFO anisotropy and longitudinal orientation in both outer and inner cortical bone compartments. This study lays a methodological foundation for the quantitative evaluation of bone tissue architecture in volant and non-volant mammals that may be expanded in the future.
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