[Investigation of the relationship between the function and light and electron microscopic structure of osteoblasts and changes in the tibial cortex in rachitic rats].

Four-week-old male Wistar rats were fed a low phosphorus diet without vitamin D and were injected with 1% lead acetate solution twice intravenously. Their tibias were then taken and decalcified in 5% formic acid solution saturated with hydrogen sulphate, in the cross-section of which the deposition of lead sulphate was observed under light microscopy as two concentric lines. The rate of matrix formation was calculated by measuring the distance of the two lines and compared with electron microscopic findings of the same sample. These results showed a decrease of the matrix formation rate and disturbance of mineralization in a low phosphorus diet. In the cortex of rickets, "resorption cavities" of various sizes were observed, and it was presumed that "resorption" came to the front with the progress of rachitogenic change, although whether resorption itself could be accelerated is still dubious.