QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Carlisle, E. M. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Carlisle, E. M.

A Silicon Requirement for Normal Skull Formation in Chicks^1,2,

Environmental and Nutritional Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024

Studies were undertaken to investigate the effect of feeding a silicon (Si)-deficient diet containing a natural protein in place of the crystalline amino acid-based diets used in earlier studies. Feeding this Si-deficient basal diet with or without supplemental Si to day-old cockerels under trace element-controlled conditions resulted in the production of skull abnormalities in the deficient chicks under conditions of near optimal growth. On macropathological examination, gross changes were found in the architecture of the skulls of the deficient chicks; the frontal area was narrower and the dorsal median line at the frontal parietal junction was depressed with a narrowing both posterior and laterally, forming a stunted parietal, occipital and temporal bone area. X-ray and histological examination of this area showed less trabeculae and calcification. Biochemical analyses of the skull frontal bones for bone mineral, non-collagenous protein, hexosamine and collagen demonstrated that the frontal bones from the Si-deficient chicks had a significantly reduced collagen content. In this study, the major effect of Si appears to be on the collagen content of the connective tissue matrix, a deficiency resulting in abnormal skull matrix formation. Support is given to the earlier postulate that Si is involved in an early stage of bone formation.

KEY WORDS: • silicon • skull formation • collagen • chicks

¹ This research was supported by a grant from the USPHS National Institute of Health, AM 16611.

² Presented in part at the 61st Annual Meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Atlantic City. NJ. 1977. Fed. Proc. 36, 1123 (abs.).

Manuscript received 3 July 1979.