Amino-oxidase and dermal connective tissue in scoliosis

The amino-oxidase and collagen content of dermal tissue was evaluated in 10 patients with severe idiopathic scoliosis and in a control group of 7 patients with poliomyelitic scoliosis, that were to undergo surgical correction of their skeletal deformity. A greater dermal content of neutral salt souble collagen was found in the patients with idiopathic scoliosis, compared with the control group. Statistically the difference was highly significant. Mono-amino-oxidase activity, however, was found to be significantly decreased in dermal extracts obtained from patients affected by idiopathic scoliosis in comparison with controls. The involvement of mono-amino-oxidase in the crosslinking of collagen and the possible classification of idiopathic scoliosis as a systemic disease of connective tissue are discussed.