FUNCTIONAL MATRIX AND

FUNCTIONAL MATRIX REVISITED

By Dr. JB
PG 1ST YEAR MDS
Orthodontics
 INTRODUCTION - FMH
• Given by MELVIN MOSS
• Worked on the concept
put by VAN DER KLAUVW-
FUNCTIONAL CRANIAL
COMPONENT.
• On which various lab
studies and experiments
were carried out.
• In the year 1960 first paper was published in
the American journal of physical
anthropology- MOSS AND YOUNG
• In the year 1981, MOSS gave the classical
statement
• The origin, growth and maintenance of all
skeletal tissue and organs are always
secondary, compensatory and obligatory to
temporally and operation prior events or
process that occur in specifically related
non-skeletal tissues, organs or functional
space
• MOSS said that head and neck region consist
of number of functions:
1. Digestion
2. Respiration
3. Speech
4. Olfaction
5. Balance
6. Vision
Each of these function is completely carried out
by FUNCTIONAL CRANIAL COMPONENT
 BASIC CONCEPT OF GROWTH
• Brought about by two process-
• TRANSFORMATION
- It is a change in shape and size,
- Osseous deposition and resorption.
- It is a direct response to primary morphogenic
demand of specifically related function matrix.
• TRANSLATION
- Change in spatial relation
- It is passive, without osseous deposition and
resorption
 SKELETAL UNIT
• Composed of bone, cartilage and tendinous
tissue.
• MACROSKELETAL UNIT
• When adjoining portions of a number of
neighbouring “bones” are united to function
as a single cranial component.
Eg.- endocranial surface of calvaria
 MICROSKELTAL UNIT
• Bones consisting of number of small skeletal unit.
• MANDIBLE
- coronoid
- angle of mandible
- alveolar
- basal
• In the mandible we distinguish easily a coronoid microskelctal unit
related to the functional demands of the temporalis muscle;
• An angular microskeletal unit related to the activity of both the
masseter and medial pterygoid muscles;
• An alveolar unit related to the presence and position of teeth;
• A basal microskeletal unit related to the inferior alveolar
neurovascular triad matrix
 FUNCTIONAL MATRICES
• This consist of soft tissues- muscles, glands,
nerves, vessels, fat, etc., although all of these
are obviously included within the concept.
Teeth are also a functional matrix.

• IT IS DIVIDED INTO TWO TYPES-

• PERIOSTEAL MATRICES
• CAPSULAR MATRICES
 PERIOSTEAL MATRICES
• All non skeletal functional units adjacent to
skeletal unit form the periosteal matrices.
• They act by bringing transformation of the
related skeletal units.
• Best example- coronoid process and
temporalis muscle.
• Also has effect on the size and/or shape of
the skeletal unit by osseous deposition
and resorption.
• All skeletal units, and thus all bones in the
formal sense, arise, exist, grow, are
maintained, and respond morphologically
while totally embedded within their functional
periosteal matrices. At the same time, all
these functional cranial components
(functional matrices plus skeletal units) are
organized in the form of cranial capsules.
 CAPSULAR MATRICES
• Defined as the organ and spaces that occupy a
broader anatomical complex.
• Each capsule is an envelope - contain a series of
FCC - skeletal unit and the related functional
matrices..
• Sandwiched between two covering layers
• Capsules expand due to volumetric increase of
capsular matrix.
• They result in the translative movement of the
embedded bones
Four capsules are present-
• NEURO CRANIAL
• ORO FACIAL
• OTIC
• ORBITAL
• Here the neurocranial and
orofacial capsular matrices
are shown. The neural
capsular matrix consists of
the entire neural mass
including the dura mater,
while the orofacial capsular
matrix consists of these
functioning spaces. In both
cases the skeletal units exist
completely within their
respective capsules.
 NEUROCRANIAL CAPSULE
• Sandwiched between- skin and dura mater
• Consist of-
• 5 layers of scalp
• Bone
• Two layer duramater
 The expansion of the neurocranial capsule in response
to the morphogenetically primary expansion of the
enclosed neural mass. As this capsule expands, the
enclosed and embedded calvarial skeletal tissues are
passively translated in space in response to the growth
of this capsular matrix. At the same time, these same
skeletal units respond to the altered demands of their
functional periosteal matrices.
• Volumetric increase cause compensatory
expansion of the surrounding capsule which is
brought about by mitotic activity.
• Later the calvarial functional cranial
component as a whole are passively and
secondarily translated.
 OROFACIAL MATRIX
• Surround and protect oronasopharyngeal
space.
• Surround by skin and mucous membrane on
either side.
• Originates by process of enclosure.
• Volumetric growth of these spaces is the
primary morphogenetic event in facial skull
growth.
The volumetric expansion of the oropharyngeal
functioning spaces

Increase in the size of the capsule

The whole of the included and enclosed

functional components, are translated to a new
position in space.
FUNCTIONAL MATRIX HYPOTHESIS
REVISITED
This has been possible because of advances in
biomechanical, bioengineering and computer sciences.
• Functional matrix hypothesis is a series of 4
articles given by Melvin Moss in 1997.
1. The role of mechanotransduction
2. The role of an osseous connected cellular
network
3. The genomic thesis
4. The epigenetic antithesis and the resolving
synthesis
 Functional cranial component

Skeletal unit Functional matrix

Macroskeletal
Microskeletal eg- Periosteal eg-
eg- endocranial coronoid, angular teeth and muscles
surface of calvaria

Capsular
Eg- orofacial,
neurocranial
 CONSTRAINTS OF FMH
1. methodical constraints
• Macroscopic measurement technique and
arbitary reference planes are now been
replaced by continuum mechanics technique
like – FEM
• Roentgenographic cephalometry permitted
only method specific description that cannot
be structurally detailed. This constraint was
removed
2. Hierarchical constraint:
• That version’s descriptions did not extend
“downward” to processes at the cellular,
subcellular or molecular structural domains or
extend “upwards” to the multicellular process by
which bone tissues respond to lower level signals.
• The FMH could not describe either how extrinsic,
epigenetic FM stimuli are transduced into
regulatory signals by individual bone cells, or how
individual cells communicate to produce
coordinated multicellular responses.
 REVISED STATEMENT
The developmental origin of all cranial elements
and all their subsequent change in shape, size
and location, as well as their maintenance in
being, are always without exception secondary,
compensatory and mechanically obligatory
response to the temporally and operationally
prior demand of their related cephalic non-
skeletal cells, tissues, organs and operational
volumes.
 MECHANOTRANSDUCTION
• All vital ceils are "irritable" or perturbed by and
respond to alterations in their external
environment.
• Mechanosensing processes enable a cell to sense
and to respond to extrinsic loadings, by using the
processes of mechanoreception and of
mechanotransduction.
• The former transmits an extracellular physical
stimulus into a receptor cell; the latter transduces
or transforms the stimulus's energetic and/or
informational content into an intracellular signal.
 OSSEOUS MECHANOTRANSDUCTION
• Static and dynamic loadings are continuously
applied to bone tissues, tending to deform
both extracellular matrix and bone cells.
When an appropriate stimulus parameter
exceeds threshold values, the loaded tissue
responds by the triad of bone cell adaptation
processes.
 OSSEOUS MECHANOTRANSDUCTION
1. Unlike other mechanosensory cells, bone cell
are not specialized for such stimuli.
2. These cells shows aneural transmission of
signals.
3. Bone loading stimulus evoke three
adaptational responses.
4. The changes brought about by stimuli are
confined to a single bone to which the signal
is transduced.
• This process translates the information
content of a periosteal functional matrix
stimulus into a skeletal unit cell signal, for
example, it moves information hierarchically
downward to the osteocytes.
• There are two, possibly complementary,
skeletal cellular mechanotransductive
processes:
ionic / electrical
mechanical
• IONIC- Bring about transport of ions through
plasma membrane resulting in creation of
electrical signal.

• Stretch activated channels: Several types of

deformation may occur in strained bone tissue.
One of these involves the plasma membrane
stretch-activated (S-A) ion channels, a structure
found in bone cells, in many other cell types, and
significantly in fibroblasts. When activated in
strained osteocytes, they permit passage of a
certain sized ion or set of ions, including K+,
Ca2+, Na +, and Cs+.
• ELECTRICAL PROCESSES.
• These include several, nonexclusive
mechanotransductive processes (e.g.,
electromechanical and electrokinetic),
involving the plasma membrane and
extracellular fluids
Electromechanical
• Involves the osteocytic plasma membrane.
• it contains voltage activated ion channels and
trans-membrane ion flow.

Electro-kinetic
• Bound and unbound electrical charges,
associated with the bone fluids.
• Electrical effects in the fluid filled bone are
electro-kinetic i.e. streaming potential
• MECHANICAL PROCESS
• It is an alternative means by which periosteal
functional matrix activity may regulate
hierarchically lower level bone cell genomic
functions.
• The basis of this
mechanism is the physical
continuity of the
transmembrane molecule
integrin.
This molecule is connected
extracellularly with the
macromolecular collagen
of the organic matrix and
intracellularly with the
cytoskekeletal actin.
 MECHANORECEPTION

MECHANOTRANSDUCTION

IONIC MECHANICAL

STRETCH ACTIVATED
CHANNELS INTEGRIN

ELECTRICAL EVENTS

ELECTROMECHANICAL ELECTROKINETIC
 2. THE ROLE OF AN OSSEOUS
CONNECTED CELLULAR NETWORK
BONE AS OSSEOUS CONNECTED CELLULAR
NETWORK
• Osteocytes have cytoplasmic processes which
are oriented three dimensionally. Present
laterally and vertically
• All bone cells, except osteoclasts, are
extensively interconnected by gap junctions
GAP JUNCTION- are found where plasma
membrane of a pair of markedly overlapping
canalicular processes meet.
GAP JUNCTIONS CONNECT-
• Osteon and interstitial regions
• Superficial osteocytes to periosteal and
endosteal osteoblast
• Lateral connection of osteoblast
• Periosteal osteoblast with preosteoblastic
cells, which are interconnected
 Initial layer cells- stimuli (loading)

Summation

Intercellular signal (mechanotransduction)

Hidden layer cells (adj. osteocytes)

Final layer cells (osteoblasts)

Output
NETWORK THOERY
• Information is not stored discretely in a CCN, as it is in
a conventional, single CPU computer. Rather it is
distributed across all or part of the network, and
several types of information may be stored
simultaneously.
• The instantaneous state of a CCN is a property of the
state of all its cells and of all their connections.
Accordingly, the informational representation of CCN is
redundant, assuring that the network is fault or error
tolerant, i.e, one or several inoperative cells causes
little or no noticeable loss in network operations,
which is a matter of useful clinical significance.
• The CCNs show oscillation, i.e., reciprocal
signalling (feedback) between layers. This
attribute enables them to adjustively self-
organize.
• This behavior is related to the fact that biologic
CCNs are not preprogrammed; rather they learn
by unsupervised or epigenetic "training'‘.

• Gap junctions are electrical synapses that permit

bi-directional signal traffic.
 ATTRIBUTES OF CCN
(1) Developmentally, it is an untrained self-organized,
self-adapting and epigenetically regulated system.
(2) Operationally, it is a stable, dynamic system that
exhibits oscillatory behaviour permitting feedback.
(3) Structurally, an osseous CCN is nonmodular, i.e., the
variations in its organization permit discrete
processing of differential signals.
• It is this attribute that permits the triad of histologic
responses to a unitary loading event.
 3. THE GENOMIC THESIS
• The initial version of the functional matrix
hypothesis (FMH), claiming epigenetic control
of morphogenesis, was based on macroscopic
experimental, comparative, and clinical data.
• Recently revised, it now extends hierarchically
from gross to microscopic levels and identifies
some epigenetic mechanisms capable of
regulating genomic expression.
• The genomic thesis holds that the genome,
from the moment of fertilization, contains all
the information necessary to regulate.
• In this thesis, morphogenesis is but the
predetermined reading-out of an intrinsic and
inherited genomic organismal blueprint where,
in addition to molecular synthesis, the genome
also regulates the geometric attributes of cell,
tissue, organ, and organismal size, shape, and
location.
 THE GENOMIC THESIS IN ORAFOCIAL
BIOLOGY
• There is extensive support for the genomic
thesis in the orofacial biology literature, with
most genetic studies of cephalic or cranial
morphogenesis explicitly or implicitly
assuming genomic regulation of each
anatomical structure.
• Prenatal craniofacial development is
controlled by two interrelated, temporally
sequential, processes:

(1) initial regulatory (homeobox) gene activity.

(2) subsequent activity of two regulatory
molecular groups: growth factor families and
steroid/thyroid family.
• It is claimed that regulatory molecules can
(1) "alter the manner in which homeobox genes
coordinate cell migration and subsequent cell
interactions that regulate growth" and
(2) be involved in the "genetic variations
causing, or contributing to, the abnormal
development of relatively common craniofacial
malformations.
 ORTHODONTIC IMPLICATIONS

• Poor co-ordination of form and size of

structures(teeth and jaws) by regulatory genes
result in malocclusion and dentofacial
deformitites.
 4. EPIGENETIC ANTITHESIS
• The genomic thesis passes directly from molecules to
morphogenesis: directly from DNA molecules to adult
morphology, ignoring the roles of the many epigenetic
processes and mechanism.
• The epigenetic antithesis detailing the processes and
mechanisms seeking to clarify the casual chain
between genome & phenotype.
• Process Series of action or operation that had
towards a particular result.
• Mechanism Fundamental physical or chemical
process(es) involved in, or responsible for an action,
reaction or other nailed phenomenon.
EPIGENETIC PROCESS OF LOADING
• Many different mechanism are capable of
modifying phenotype.
1. Loads may act at - Cellular level
Tissue level
2. Loads may be – Dynamic
Static
3. To be effective load may increase, decrease or
remain constant
Epigenetic mechanism at cellular level-
Deformation of extracellular matrix.
Altering the cell shape.

Epigenetic regulation at higher level-

Regulation of periosteal matrices.
 A RESOLVING SYNTHESIS
• It argues that morphogenesis is regulated (controlled,
caused) by the activity of both genomic and epigenetic
processes and mechanisms.
• Both are necessary causes; neither alone are sufficient
causes; and only their integrated activities provides the
necessary and sufficient causes of growth and
development.
• Genomic factors are considered as intrinsic and
prior causes;
• epigenetic factors are considered as extrinsic and
proximate causes.
 COMPLEXITY AND
SELF ORGANISATION

• COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEM

“Ensemble” of several tissue and organs.

CAS processes genomic and epigenetic
information in parallel manner.
Minor changes in epigenetic input result in
huge fluctuation in morphogenetic output.
• Ontogeny is a nonlinear process.
• Spontaneous self organising ontogenic
processes and mechanism can create
phenotypic variability under contant genetic
and other extra organismal epigenetic
condition.
• OPERATION OF COMPLEXITY can be suggested
as-
"Environmental factors thus play a decisive role
in all ontogenetic processes. But it is the
organism itself that, as an integrated system,
dictates the nature of each and every
developmental response, the living organism
self-organizes on the basis of its own internal
structuring, in continuous interaction with the
environment in which it finds itself.”
 REFERENCES
• A Functional Approach to Craniology MELVIN L. MOSS AND RICHARD W.
YOUNG Department of Anatomy, College of Physicians and Surgeons,
Columbia University, New York, New York
• The primary role of functional matrices in facial growth Melvin Moss,
D.D.S., Ph.D., and Letty Salentijn, D.D.S. New York, N. P.
• The functional matrix revisited.1. The role of mechanotransduction.
AJODO –1997; 112 :8-11.
• The functional matrix revisted 2. The role of an osseous connected cellular
network
• AJODO -1997; 112:221-6
• The functional matrix revisited.3 .The genomic thesis AJODO-
1997;112:338-42
• The functional matrix revisited.4 .The epigenetic antithesis AJODO-
1997;112:410-7