Osteocyte necrosis in normal bone.

Bone tissues from a variety of different skeletal elements of 89 healthy rhesus monkeys in an age series xwere screened for nonpathologic osteocy te necrosis.* Incidence of cellular necrosis x as found directly related to the age of the monkey. Virtually no cellular necrosis was found in very young monkeys having primary dentition. Bone samples from about half of the monkeys with mixed (lentition, however, had scattered, isolated patches of eniltx lacunas (Fig. 1). All monkeys with permanent dentition had some degree of necrocytosis, ranging from such scattered patches to relatively extensive zones (Fig. 2). The incidence of osteocyte necrosis also Axas found to te related to the extent of vascular canal distribution. Ini bone tissues containing a clense arrangement of canals, cellular necrosis xas not ob-