Medical Dictionary

Sharpey's fiber

noun Shar·pey's fiber \ ˈshär-pēz- \

medical Definition of Sharpey's fiber

: any of the thready processes of the periosteum that penetrate the tissue of the superficial lamellae of bones

Biographical Note for sharpey's fiber

Sharpey, William (1802–1880), British anatomist and physiologist. Sharpey was one of the founders of modern physiology in Great Britain and the first to occupy a chair of physiology in a British medical school. Joseph Lister was one of his pupils. In 1830 he wrote an early important work on cilia and ciliary motion. Renowned also as an anatomist, he furnished the description of the fibers that now bear his name for the 1848 edition of Jones Quain's Anatomy.