Heterogeneity of osteogenesis imperfecta. Biochemical and morphological findings in a case of type III according to Sillence.

A male infant with pale-blue sclerae, who died at the age of 6 weeks through the aspiration of food, presented multiple fractures and deformation of the long tubular bones. The clinical and radiological findings and the course indicated osteogenesis imperfecta, type III, according to Sillence's classification. The family history was unremarkable. Light and electron microscopic studies of iliac crest bone obtained postmortem, showed an abrupt interruption of endochondral ossification, with an active periosteal ossification. In the region of the fractures, a mixed desmochondral callus was seen. The endoplasmic reticulum of the osteoblasts was markedly dilated, the mitochondria were swollen. T…