osteon, the chief structural unit of compact (cortical) bone, consisting of concentric bone layers called lamellae, which surround a long hollow passageway, the Haversian canal (named for Clopton Havers, a 17th-century English physician). The Haversian canal contains small blood vessels responsible for the blood supply to osteocytes (individual bone cells). Osteons are several millimetres long and about 0.2 millimetre (0.008 inch) in diameter; they tend to run parallel to the long axis of a bone.
Osteons are formations characteristic of mature bone and take shape during the process of bone remodeling, or renewal. New bone may also take this structure as it forms, in which case the structure is called a primary osteon. The process of the formation of osteons and their accompanying Haversian canals begins when immature woven bone and primary osteons are destroyed by large cells called osteoclasts, which hollow out a channel through the bone, usually following existing blood vessels. Layers of bone-forming cells, or osteoblasts, follow the osteoclasts and lay down new bone on the sides of the channel; the layers of bone built up in this way slowly narrow the channel until a tunnel not much larger than the central blood vessel remains. The blood supply for the osteocytes then passes through these channels, the Haversian canals. The spaces between adjacent osteons are filled with interstitial lamellae, layers of bone that are often remnants of previous Haversian systems. Transverse vessels, which run perpendicular to the long axis of the cortex, are called Volkmann canals; Volkmann canals connect adjacent osteons and also connect the blood vessels of the Haversian canals with the periosteum, the tissue covering the bone’s outer surface.