Presence of Iron in Osteoid Seams of Bone from Patients with Diabetes Mellitus

Iron, demonstrated with the Prussian blue test, has been observed in the osteoid seams that accompany lamellar bone formation in seventeen out of nineteen diabetic cases, while it was absent in this location in all sixty nondiabetic persons used as controls. The iron is homogeneously distributed throughout the osteoid, it is not paniculate, and it is extracellular. This distinguishes it from hemosiderin-bound iron which is both paniculate and usually intracellular.