Histology of Normal Bone and Bone Marrow, and Their Main Disorders

Abstract

The unique attraction of a bone and bone marrow biopsy is that it allows direct visualisation of bone and its cells, as well as the bone marrow, i.e., haematopoiesis and all elements of the stromal compartment. The trephine biopsy has also some main advantages over the aspirate specimens. The most important is to enable examination of the topographic distribution of the cellular constituents of the marrow, their relationships to the bone trabeculae and an absolute assessment of cellularity. Furthermore in diseases which produce fibrosis, an aspirate often fails to produce an adequate diagnostic specimen (a “dry tap”). The procedure of taking a trephine biopsy (“Jamshidi needle”) is relatively simple and is accomplished without complications in the vast majority of cases. Modern techniques of fixation, embedding and staining for conventional histology as well as immunohistology and histomorphometry enable accurate assessment of bone and bone marrow structure, architecture and cells. Today bone and bone marrow biopsies are widely used for investigation of unclear and malignant conditions of bone and bone marrow.