The Bone
The rigid organ that forms the skeleton and supports the body.
A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, help regulate acid-base homeostasis, provide structure and support for the body, and enable mobility and hearing.
Quick Facts
- Franchise
- Painkiller
- Type
- Infernal location; gameplay stage
- Setting
- Hell
- First appears
- Painkiller (2004)
- Theme
- Skeletal; osseous
- Protagonist
- Daniel Dax
Lore & Background
The Ancient Greek word for bone is ὀστέον ("osteon"). In anatomical terminology, the word for a bone is os. Bone tissue is made up of different types of bone cells: osteoblasts and osteocytes, osteoclasts, and modified or flattened osteoblasts. The mineralised matrix of bone tissue has an organic component of mainly ossein and an inorganic component of bone mineral.
Reader's Guide
Five types of bones are found in the human body: long, short, flat, irregular, and sesamoid. Long bones are characterized by a shaft (diaphysis) longer than its width and an epiphysis at each end. Short bones are roughly cube-shaped. Flat bones are thin and curved. Sesamoid bones are embedded in tendons. Irregular bones do not fit into the above categories.
Did You Know?
- In the human body at birth, approximately 300 bones are present, but many fuse during development, leaving 206 separate bones in the adult.
- The largest bone in the body is the femur, and the smallest is the stapes in the middle ear.
- Bones serve mechanical functions including protection of internal organs, support, and hearing via the ossicles.
- Bone marrow produces blood cells in a process called hematopoiesis.
More in World & Locations
Elsewhere in Painkiller
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