5 major functions of skeletal system: Types, structure

What Is A Skeletal System?

The skeletal system consists of bones in continuation with related connective tissues that give form, protection, and movement to the human body. In the skeleton system of an adult, there are 206 bones. It includes the skull, spine, ribs, and appendages that are articulated by joints and supported by cartilages, ligaments, and tendons. Some of the major functions include the provision of the overall outline of the body, the attachment points or sites on which muscles are anchored for effective movement, and protecting vital body organs such as the heart, brain, lungs, and liver. The other function is the production of blood cells through the process called erythropoiesis in the bone marrow. In addition, it provides further maintenance of some of the key minerals in the body, such as calcium and phosphorous, via the skeleton.

Components Of Skeletal System

• Bones are rigid, hard organs comprising part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones support and protect the body's various organs and support body weight.

• Bones work as levers and store important minerals, such as calcium and phosphate, releasing them to the bloodstream as needed.

• The marrow inside a few bones is the location of the synthesis of blood cells through the process called hematopoiesis.

• A cartilage is a flexible form of connective tissue that takes place in several locations in the body, for instance, the joints in the ear and nose, and the intervertebral disks.

• It provides cushion-bearing properties and reduces friction in the joints to enable smooth and frictionless movement of the body to be relieved from unwanted pain.

• Joints are those parts of the skeleton where two or more bones meet. Accordingly, it provides different bowel degrees of movement and flexibility.

• There could be fixed, semi-movable, and freely movable joints that offer all sorts of movements.

• Ligaments are relatively elastic, tough forms of fibrous connective tissue that bind bone to bone and thereby provide strength to the joints of the body.

• Ligaments aid in holding internal organs in their respective places.

• The ligaments keep the bones together, maintaining alignment and preventing harmful or excessive movements of bones in a joint, thereby avoiding injury.

• Tendons are tough, flexible bands of tissues that connect muscles to bones.

• Tendons serve the basic function of passing the force that is developed through the muscles for appropriate articulation of the bones to create motion.

• Tendons also help in joint stability by supporting muscle alignment while the muscles are contracted and, thus, motion.

Functions Of Skeletal System

The functions are discussed below-

Support

• The skeleton supports the form of the body by the weight of tissues and organs, by position, as well as by the body's erect position, which reduces the pressure in the tissues.

• The skeleton provides a framework for the body; hence, it gives it basic support and stays on.

• The skeleton further functions to support the form of the body and tissues, organs and weight, besides the body's erect position.

• The rigidity of the bones provides muscular attachments and distributes the mechanical loads during activities such as standing, walking, and lifting.

Examples of key bones that contribute to support

Vertebral Column: Another very important columnar supporting structure includes the spine or vertebral column, which maintains the erect posture of the body by balanced rigidities and protects the spinal cord. This is an individual column of vertebrae that absorb and then distribute mechanical stresses.

Pelvis: It takes the weight of the upper body, directly by way of support for the legs, in sitting and standing. Furthermore, it provides support for the lower abdominal organs, and it provides a base of support for the lower limbs during the movement of walking and running.

Protection

The skeletal system provides this protective function because it envelops all of the vital organs with bony structures. Such a protective function remains very crucial in ensuring protection against mechanical injury or trauma to the delicate internal organs.

Skull: Protection of the brain

The skull is a bony rigid enclosure that envelops the brain to protect it from mechanical shocks and concussions. It is composed of the basic cranium, which holds the brain, and also, the facial bones to further strengthen and protect the facial area. The skull provides a means of protection for the brain from massive injuries through its muscular and firm structures.

Rib cage: Protection of the heart and lungs

The cage is formed of 12 pairs of ribs that arise from the thoracic vertebrae into the sternum. This provides the covering of the heart and lungs against shocks and weights. Again, it participates in the mechanics of breathing by facilitating the expansion and contraction of the chest cavity.

Vertebrae: Protection of the spinal cord

The vertebral column or spine protects and envelops the spinal cord, a component of the central nervous system. The spinal cord is guarded from injuries or compressive forces by the composite structure of the vertebrae along with the spinal canal; however, this also gives flexibility and mobility to the trunk.

Movement

The bones are a rigid framework to which the muscles of the body are attached. Muscles are contraction machines that bend and straighten parts of the body, twist, pull, pump body fluids, and perform many other important functions. The contraction has the effect of pulling the tendons connected to a bone, rotating the bone at the joint.

Ball-and-socket Joints: This joint allows a wide, extensive movement in many directions. The shoulder and hip are the typical joints in which the rounded head of one bone slips into the cup-like of another.

Hinge Joints: They allow movement in only one direction similar to a door swinging open or shut. It's found in the elbow and knee joints that allow 'flexion and extension".

Musculoskeletal interaction: The musculoskeletal system acts as an integrated system in which the action can be performed by the bones, muscles, and joints. It is the muscles that contract and apply forces on the bones through tendons. These bones articulate at joints and perform motion. It is this articulation that allows the execution of highly complex activities and adjustment in posture supporting gross motor activities to be carried out.

Mineral Storage

The more likely of these are measured in the body to be calcium and phosphorus. Bones facilitate the storage of homeostatic reserves for major minerals, with the highest account held in reserves of calcium and phosphorus in the matrix of the bone.

Importance of mineral storage

The functions that bones perform by storing and releasing unlock means for mineral storage to contribute to the general homeostasis of minerals, thereby being useful for other physiological processes. Calcium and phosphorus are obligate needs for not only the skeleton but also for individual nerve impulse transmission, muscle contraction, or blood clotting.

Blood Cell Production

Hematopoiesis is a process through which there is derived blood production in the red marrow from stem cells located in the bone. It involves the differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells into different types of blood cells, precisely: red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. These cells require a microenvironment in which to mature and be released into the bloodstream.

Types of blood cells produced

Red Blood Cells (Erythrocytes): These cells take oxygen from the lungs to all the tissues of the body, while also returning carbon dioxide originating in the body's tissues back to vacate from the lungs. They are biconcave in shape and have no nucleus.

White Blood Cells or Leukocytes: The cells forming the very basis of the immune response, most importantly against an infection or disease, further categorized as neutrophils lymphocytes, and monocytes with their specific functions in their mechanism of immune guarding.

Locations of bone marrow

The bone marrow is mainly found within osseous tissue in the central cavities, as in long bones of the femur and humerus and flat bones like the pelvis, sternum, and ribs. In adults, most active hematopoiesis takes place in the red bone marrow of the pelvis-kidneys, girdle, sternum, and proximal heads of the femur and humerus at an approximate rate of making 5 million red blood cells per second.