The calcification <i>in vitro</i> of kidney, lung and aorta

Abstract

ALTHOUGH calcification in the animal body is normaly confined to hypertrophic cartilage and osteoid, in certain abnormal or pathological conditions deposits of calcium salts may also be formed in other tissues, among which are the kidney, the lung and the arteries. Some of these conditions, for example hyper- vitaminosis D, are associated with exceptionally high concentrations of blood- calcium or phosphate, suggesting that the plasma has become by some agency supersaturated with calcium salts. In others degenerative changes in the tissues themselves precede, and may possibly be the primary cause of, calcification.