This image illustrates the epiphyseal plate of a long bone. Click on the thumbnail at right for higher magnification of a zone of endochondral bone formation in a similar specimen.
Note that as one scans across epiphyseal plate from top to bottom, one sees sequential stages in the process of endochondral ossification. Cartilage is growing (expanding), pushing the epiphyseal bone upward. Meanwhile, across the epiphyseal plate, bone is invading upward and replacing the cartilage.
Comments and questions: dgking@siu.edu
SIUC / School
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King
https://histology.siu.edu/ssb/NM037b.htm
Last updated: 13 August 2021 / dgk