Correlation of changes in capillary supply and epithelial in the hyperplastic buccal mucosa of zinc-deficient rats

Lengths of capillaries and epithelial dimensions were measured on tracings of sections of buccal mucosa stained for the alkaline phosphatase from rats on a zinc-deficient diet. The diet-deficient animals showed the following increases over controls; length of capillaries X 2.67; thickness of cell layer, X1.47; thickness of keratin layer. X2.82; basal layer length: surface length ratio, X1.41. Lengthening of the basal layer and the capillaries showed high positive correlations with thickening of the basal layer cell layer. Lengthening of the capillaries exceeded the lengthening of the basal layer cell layer amd the thickening of the epithelium but fell short of the increased anabolic performance of the epithelium as quantitated in previous investigations.