Radiographic Specification of Skeletal Maturation in Donkeys: Defining the Ossification Time of Donkey Growth Plates for Preventing Irreparable Damage

Abstract

There is no doubt that the donkey, as a drafting animal, plays a critical role in the developing communities for both agriculture production and riding purposes. Therefore, to maintain healthy skeleton in these animals, the understanding of radiographic anatomy of ossification centers and growth plates (locations, types and closure times), need to be advanced. It is imperative that an appropriate maturation point is reached to avoid early overexertion of the donkey and the resulting irreparable damage. It is therefore the aim of this review is to highlight the importance of expanding the limited dataset on epiphyseal growth plate maturation and begin to define its ossification times in the donkey. Moreover, it has been recently proposed that the receptors of gonadal sex hormones including estrogen, androgen as well as pituitary sex hormones including luteinizing hormone and prolactin are localized in human and animal growth plates. This indicates that these hormones actively participate in the chondroregulation mechanisms at the ossification growth plates. A connection with that, we noticed that the more primitive stem cells as well as hematopoietic stem cells and mesenechymal stem cells express these receptors as well. Therefore, it would be very interesting to address the link between sex hormones and ossification time of growth plates, as well as the sharing activities of these stem cells during the ossification process.