Sharpey's fibres (bone fibres, or perforating fibres) are a
matrix of
connective tissue consisting of bundles of strong predominantly type I
collagen fibres connecting
periosteum to
bone
A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, ...
. They are part of the outer fibrous layer of periosteum, entering into the outer circumferential and interstitial
lamellae of bone tissue.
Sharpey's fibres also attach muscle to the periosteum of bone by merging with the fibrous periosteum and underlying bone as well. A good example is the attachment of the
rotator cuff muscles to the blade of the
scapula.
In the
teeth, Sharpey's fibres are the terminal ends of principal fibres (of the periodontal ligament) that insert into the
cementum and into the periosteum of the alveolar bone. A study on
rats suggests that the three-dimensional structure of Sharpey's fibres intensifies the continuity between the
periodontal ligament fibre and the
alveolar bone (tooth socket), and acts as a buffer medium against stress.
Sharpey's fibres in the primary acellular cementum are mineralized fully; those in cellular cementum and bone are mineralized only partially at their periphery.
In the
skull, the main function of Sharpey's fibres is to bind the cranial bones in a firm but moveable manner; they are most numerous in areas where the bones are subjected to the greatest forces of separation. In the spine, similar fibres join the
intervertebral disc to the adjacent vertebrae. Each fibre is accompanied by an
arteriole
An arteriole is a small-diameter blood vessel in the microcirculation that extends and branches out from an artery and leads to capillary, capillaries.
Arterioles have vascular smooth muscle, muscular walls (usually only one to two layers of smoo ...
and one or more
nerve fibres.
Scottish anatomist
William Sharpey described them in 1846, although they were also referred to as the claviculi of Gagliardi after
Domenico Gagliardi who described them in 1689.
References
{{Bone and cartilage
Musculoskeletal system