Abstract: AIM: To study the correlative changes of bone mineral contents and histomorphometry of lumbarvertebrae in ovariectomized rats by analysis of T-type cor-relation degree.METHODS: Forty 10.5-month-old vir-gin female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided in-to five groups:(1)Basal:at 10.5 mon of age;(2)sham-1:sham-operated at 13 mon of age;(3)OVX-1:ovariectomized at 13 mon of age;(4)sham-2:sham-op-erated at 16 mon of age;(5)OVX-2:ovariectomized at 16 mon of age.Afterovariectomy,all rats were treated orally with NS at 5 ml·kg^-1·d^-1.At the end-point of study,the undecalcified longitudinal fourth lumbarverte-bra(LV4)sections were cut and stained with Goldner' s Trichrome forbone histomorphometric analyses.The fifth lumbarvertebra(LV5)was dried with temperature and digested with acid fortesting of bone mineral content.Then the effects of bone mineral contents on bone histo-morphometry were assessed by analyzing the T-type corre-lation degree in the Grey system.RESULTS: All degrees of correlation between bone mineral contents and static histomorphometric parameters(trabecularbone volume)(BV/TV),trabecularthickness(Tb.Th)were positive,but fordynamic histomorphometric parameter(BFR/BV),the correlation degrees were negative.The effect of cont-ents of calcium(Ca)and phosphorus(P)on histomor-phometric parameters of lumbarvertebrae was much great-erthan that of the otherbone mineral contents.CONCLUSION: Analysis of T-type correlation degree can evaluate the correlative changes of bone mineral contents and histomorphometry of lumbarvertebrae in ovariecto-mized objectively and fairly.

Key words: analysis of grey correlation, T-type cor-relation degree, osteoporosis, bone histomorphometry, bone mineral content