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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2013 Oct 30;25(2):53–59. doi: 10.1016/j.tem.2013.10.001

Figure 1. Schematic comparing the anatomic structure of an artery and bone osteon.

Figure 1

Both the artery and osteon are centered on a blood lumen, which is surrounded by a single layer of endothelium. This, in turn, is surrounded by a basement membrane housing immature mesenchymal cells. In arteries, the immature cells are pericytes and/or smooth muscle cells, whereas, in bone, they are pericytes and/or preosteoblasts in the bone. (Modified from Parhami et al., Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 1997; 17:680–687).