ABSTRACT
In woven bone, collagen fibres are aligned randomly and have no lamellae, making the bone weaker and more flexible than lamellar bone. This irregular arrangement affords it isotropic characteristics, i.e. it has uniform properties in all directions, independent of the direction of load application. Woven bone exhibits a rapid rate of deposition and turnover, with more cells per unit volume than lamellar
bone. It is found in the embryonic and neonatal skeleton, the metaphyseal region of growing bones up to age 4 years, and in the fracture callus of children. It is absent in the normal adult but appears in the early hard callus following fracture. It is also found in pathological bone, e.g. in tumours, Pagetic bone and osteogenesis imperfecta.
