IS 



Structure-Function Relationships 

 in the Osteoclast 



NORMAN M. HANCOX and BRIAN, BOOTHROYD, Department of 

 Histology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, England 



IT WOULD nowadays be generally accepted that the osteoclast is 

 actively involved in some way in the resorption of bone (Hancox, 

 1963), but its exact role and mode of action remain very obscure. 

 The results to be described below bear on this problem. They come 

 partly from morphological studies with the electron microscope, and 

 partly from cytochemical work at the light microscope level. 



Materials and Methods 



The electron micrographs were obtained from embryonic fowl 

 bone fixed in Palade's buffered osmium tetroxide. Araldite was used 

 for embedding, and the results were much superior to those we had 

 obtained in earlier work (Hancox and Boothroyd, 1961) with 

 methacrylate. 



The tissue cultures to be described were simple 24- to 48-hour 

 hanging-drop preparations (fowl plasma and embryo extract) of 

 embryonic fowl bone. Osteoclasts wander out from the bone into 

 the surrounding plasma (Hancox, 1946). The cultures were pre- 

 pared by Miss S. Warner, who also performed the cytochemical 

 tests. 



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