Sutures are more than just fibrous joints between the bones in our skull. They are active growth sites that influence the development, growth and shaping of our face and cranium. When suture development is disrupted, craniosynostosis can result, a condition which is characterized by the premature closure of one or more cranial sutures before brain growth is complete and leads to an abnormally shaped skull. In this publication, leading experts in the field, both researchers and clinicians, discuss suture morphogenesis from developmental, evolutionary and genetic perspectives. In addition, an appraisal of the molecular etiology, clinical presentation and treatment of craniosynostosis is presented, as well as an outlook to future areas of study and to innovative therapeutic philosophies.
In this volume craniofacial developmental and evolutionary biologists, oral and maxillofacial surgeons, orthodontists as well as pediatric and plastic surgeons will find a wealth of recent information on the field of craniofacial development, deformity and its treatment.
41 - 56: Mechanical Influences on Suture Development and Patency
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Published:2008
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Discontinued Book Series: Frontiers of Oral Biology
Susan W. Herring, 2008. "Mechanical Influences on Suture Development and Patency", Craniofacial Sutures: Development, Disease and Treatment, D.P. Rice
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Abstract
In addition to their role in skull growth, sutures are sites of flexibility between the morerigid bones. Depending on the suture, predominant loading during life may be either tensileor compressive. Loads are transmitted across sutures via collagenous fibers and a fluid-richextracellular matrix and can be quasi-static (growth of neighboring tissues) or intermittent(mastication). The mechanical properties of sutures, while always viscoelastic, are thereforequite different for tensile versus compressive loading. The morphology of individual suturesreflects the nature of local loading, evidently by a process of developmental adaptation. Invivo or ex vivo, sutural cells respond to tensile or cyclic loading by expressing markers ofproliferation and differentiation, whereas compressive loading appears to favor osteogenesis.Braincase and facial sutures exhibit similar mechanical behavior and reactions despite theirdifferent natural environments.