The skeletal intermediary organization.

This review offers a synthesis of the intermediary organization (IO) of the skeleton. The multicellular units of its lowest level have a common plan, appropriate variations of which then create simple bony, chondral, dental, and fibrous tissues. The more complex higher IO entities then cause those tissues to grow, organize, and model into organs and then maintain the physiological and mechanical competence of those organs. The varied IO units have indivisible quantum properties which isolated cells lack but which, when summed in bulk at the organ level, effectively mimic continuous functions and create most of the known features of skeletal physiology, anatomy, and disease. Those quantum properties also permit the prediction of previously unperceived and unforeseen states and behavior, both normal and abnormal, many of which have been verified.