Bone is the hardest connective tissue in the body.

It is composed of nearly 50% water and the remaining solid part is composed of a mineral matter, mainly calcium salts and cellular matter. A bone is externally covered by a thick, white dense fibrous sheath called the periosteum. A long bone such as those of the limbs, shows both varieties of bone tissue. Longitudinally, it shows compactly arranged tissue. The bone is divided into shafts. If the shaft is cut across, a dense bone tissue which encloses a hollow cavity can be seen. This is called the marrow cavity or the medullary cavity. Marrow cavity is filled with a soft and vascular fatty tissue called bone-marrow which are of two types: red marrow and yellow marrow. The red bone marrow is highly vascular tissue and forms erythrocytes and granular leucocytes. Yellow bone marrow is mainly involved with the storage of fat. It also forms blood corpuscles only at the time of emergency. A transverse section of a compact bone shows a wonderful design mapped out in circles. In the centre of each circle is a haversian canal. The plates of bone or lamellae are arranged concentrically around the central canal. In between these plates are minute spaces called lacunae and these spaces contain bone cells and these spaces are connected to each other and to the central haversian canal by minute canals called canaliculi. Each pattern thus formed is a complete haversian system composed of a central haversian canal containing nerves, blood vessels and lymphatics, lamellae arranged concentrically, lacunae containing bone cells and canaliculi radiating between and linking up the lacunae and the haversian canals. The areas between these haversian systems are composed of interstitial lamellae

Bones are rigid organs that constitute part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue. Bones come in a variety of shapes and have a complex internal and external structure, are lightweight yet strong and hard, and serve multiple functions. One of the types of tissue that makes up bone is the mineralized osseous tissue, also called bone tissue, that gives it rigidity and a honeycomb-like three-dimensional internal structure. Other types of tissue found in bones include marrow, endosteum and periosteum, nerves, blood vessels and cartilage. At birth, there are over 270 bones in an infant human's body,[1] but many of these fuse together as the child grows, leaving a total of 206 separate bones in an adult. The largest bone in the human body is the femur.

Bones have eleven main functions:

[edit] Mechanical
Protection bones can serve to protect internal organs, such as the skull protecting the brain or the ribs protecting the heart and lungs. Shape bones provide a frame to keep the body supported. Movement bones, skeletal muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints function together to generate and transfer forces so that individual body parts or the whole body can be manipulated in three-dimensional space. The interaction between bone and muscle is studied in biomechanics. Sound transduction bones are important in the mechanical aspect of overshadowed hearing.

[edit] Synthetic
Blood production the marrow, located within the medullary cavity of long bones and interstices of cancellous bone, produces blood cells in a process called haematopoiesis.

[edit] Metabolic
Mineral storage bones act as reserves of minerals important for the body, most notably calcium and phosphorus. Growth factor storage mineralized bone matrix stores important growth factors such as insulin-like growth factors, transforming growth factor, bone morphogenetic proteins and others. Fat storage the yellow bone marrow acts as a storage reserve of fatty acids. Acid-base balance bone buffers the blood against excessive pH changes by absorbing or releasing alkaline salts. Detoxification bone tissues can also store heavy metals and other foreign elements, removing them from the blood and reducing their effects on other tissues. These can later be gradually released for excretion.[citation needed] Endocrine organ bone controls phosphate metabolism by releasing fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF-23), which acts on kidneys to reduce phosphate reabsorption. Bone cells also release a hormone called osteocalcin, which contributes to the regulation of blood sugar (glucose) and fat deposition. Osteocalcin increases both the insulin secretion and sensitivity, in addition to boosting the number of insulin-producing cells and reducing stores of fat