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An effect of gravity on the postnatal development of the human and rat femur

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Summary

The significance of similitude principles for the postnatal development of the cross-sectional area at midlength of the human and rat femur has been subjected to an investigation based both on theory and on observation. Cross sections were taken from 69 femora of female Sprague-Dawley rats 34, 72, 102, and 840 days old and from the right human femora of 94 males and 58 females ranging from 1 day to 89 years of age.

The regression of the square-root of the cross-sectional area divided by π on femur length is linear in the rats. The empirical regression line estimated by the method of least squares from the measurements and the theoretical curve calculated on the assumption of adaptive allometric growth and centrically applied loads are more or less alike in slope and elevation. The corresponding empirical relationship in the human femora turned out statistically nonlinear in the males and linear in the females.

Comparing the empirical regression functions with five theoretical curves, it has been revealed that the observations are best approximated by two curves calculated on the assumption of centrically or eccentrically applied loads and adaptive allometric growth of the cross-sectional diameter. It was further uncovered that the cross-sectional diameters at midlength of the femur are not changed isometrically with femur length both in rats and in man. Considering a simple model of the human body in the stance phase of slow walking gait on the scale of a neonate and an adult male, the hypothesis was advanced that the stresses at midlength of the femur are not altered much while the femur grows from neonate to adult size, because the outer and inner radii of the femur actually change during growth in such a way that the effects due to scale are appropriately compensated.

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  1. Department of Functional Anatomy, Anatomical Institute of the University of Würzburg, Würzburg

    Eduard Amtmann

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  1. Eduard Amtmann
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Portions of this investigation were done while the author was a NASA-NRC Senior postdoctoral Research Fellow at Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California.

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Amtmann, E. An effect of gravity on the postnatal development of the human and rat femur. Z. Anat. Entwickl. Gesch. 143, 159–183 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00525768

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