Total number of osteocyte dendritic projections within the average adult human skeleton

Range ~3.7E+12 Table - link dendritic projections
Organism Human Homo sapiens
Reference Buenzli PR, Sims NA. Quantifying the osteocyte network in the human skeleton. Bone. 2015 Jun75: 144-50. doi: 10.1016/j.bone.2015.02.016. abstract & p.146 left column 2nd paragraph & table 2PubMed ID25708054
Method Abstract:"[Investigators] have used data from recent papers obtained by new imaging techniques, in order to estimate absolute and relative quantities of the human osteocyte network and form a more complete understanding of the extent and nature of this network."
Comments Abstract:"[Investigators] estimate that the total number of osteocytes within the average adult human skeleton is ~42 billion and that the total number of osteocyte dendritic projections from these cells is ~3.7 trillion." p.146 left column 2nd paragraph:"The number of osteocytic dendritic processes varies between species [ref 17], [ref 18] and [ref 34] osteocytes in human lamellar bone have been estimated to possess between 18 and 106 dendritic processes per cell in [ref 34]. Recent 3D measurements have exhibited osteocyte lacunae with 53 to 126 emanating canaliculi, with a mean (± SD) of 89 ± 25 (see Fig. 1C) [ref 24]. Incorporating this with [investigators’] previous estimate of total osteocyte number, this gives a total number of processes projecting from the osteocyte cell bodies in the skeleton of 2.96 × 10^12–4.44 × 10^12 (average of 3.7 trillion)."
Entered by Uri M
ID 111548