Collagen fibres in otosclerosis and in osteogenesis imperfecta tarda. A light and electron microscopic study.

Skin biopsies taken from patients with osteogenesis imperfecta tarda and otosclerosis were compared blind by light- and electron microscopy with similar biopsies taken from normal volunteers in an effort to find common pathological features in the collagen fibres from the two patient groups, thus corroborating the theory that osteogenesis imperfecta and otosclerosis might be due to a common genetic anomaly in the form of a mesenchymal hypoplasia. We were not able to find differences in structure or quantity of the collagen-, elastic- or reticular fibres between normals and the two patient groups. We cannot, on the basis of our previous work and on the present morphological investigation, give support to the above-mentioned theory.