Osteogenesis after bone and bone marrow transplantation. Studies of cellular behaviour using combined myelo-osseous grafts in the subscorbutic guinea pig.

In order to study factors influencing osteogenesis after bone and bone marrow transplantation, we have caused guinea pigs to become scorbutic, and looked at the cell morphology at sites of bone formation. We had previously studied normal guinea pigs and found that autologous marrow in intermuscular implants was associated with bone production by the ninth day, regardless of the type of stored allogeneic bone transplanted with it. In subscorbutic guinea pigs, using identical implants, bone did not appear within the first 13 days, and the cell population around the implants was different. These experiments support the dominant role of bone marrow cells in osteogenesis and cast further doubt on the primary role of devitalised bone as an inducer of bone formation. Interference with cell function by deprivation of a single essential molecule, Vitamin C, produces great change in the ability of cells to synthesise bone, or pre-osseous matrix.