Elastic fibers of musculoskeletal tissues in bovine Marfan syndrome: A morphometric study

Bovine Marfan syndrome has all the major pathognomonic, clinical, and patho logical features of the human syndrome. To further explore the alterations characterizing Marfan syndrome, musculoskeletal tissues from affected and h ealthy cattle were subjected to histochemical and histomorphometric analysi s, Our findings demonstrated reduced elastic fiber content in the periosteu m, capsule, interosseous ligament, and flexor tendons of the metatarsophala ngeal joint of affected cattle. The elastic properties of a tissue are supp lied by elastic fibers in the extracellular matrix; therefore, their reduce d content in articular tissues suggests that these fibers could be function ally incompetent to withstand normal stress, causing a predisposition to jo int laxity and dislocation. Moreover, perichondrial-periosteal membranes,wh ich are made of collagen and elastic fibers, are known to affect the growth process of the long bones. The decrease in the number of elastic fibers in these membranes could result in reduced restraint of skeletal growth and e xplain some skeletal abnormalities of Marfan syndrome (i.e., dolichostenome lic habitus).