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Exacerbation of rickets and osteomalacia by maize: A study of bone histomorphometry and composition in young baboons

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Summary

Three groups of young baboons were fed for 16 months on one of three diets. The first group was given a well-tried semisynthetic formula, the second group the same diet save that vitamin D had been omitted, and the third group was given the vitamin D-free diet in which maize replaced the dextrin normally used. Although both groups fed the vitamin D-free diets developed rickets and osteomalacia, the group receiving maize did so far more rapidly and to a much greater degree of severity, as evidenced by clinical, radiological, biochemical, and histological signs. The mechanism by which maize acts remains unclear, but this report serves to emphasize the extremely detrimental effects that might be expected in populations who are deficient in vitamin D and who have predominantly cereal diets.

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Author notes

  1. Pierre J. Marie

    Present address: Unité 18, I.N.S.E.R.M., Paris, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Food Research Institute, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, PO Box 395, 0001, Pretoria, South Africa

    Michael R. Sly, Willem H. van der Walt & Du Bruyn Du Bruyn

  2. Metabolic and Nutrition Research Unit, Department of Paediatrics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    John M. Pettifor

  3. the Genetics Unit, Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Pierre J. Marie

Authors
  1. Michael R. Sly
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  2. Willem H. van der Walt
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  3. Du Bruyn Du Bruyn
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  4. John M. Pettifor
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  5. Pierre J. Marie
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Sly, M.R., van der Walt, W.H., Du Bruyn, D.B. et al. Exacerbation of rickets and osteomalacia by maize: A study of bone histomorphometry and composition in young baboons. Calcif Tissue Int 36, 370–379 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02405348

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02405348

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