A series of animal expts. was conducted to determine whether the deposition of alveolar bone in compliance with local environmental changes is actually a simple local bcne response or whether it is in some degree dependent upon systemic regulation. Extraction of functional antagonists was the method employed to alter the local environment. Acute starvation was induced in order to create a general skeletal disturbance. The findings revealed that when functional antagonists are removed from teeth of normal and starved animals, bone apposition occurs in an attempt to maintain the anatomic relationship of the teeth and underlying structures. The fact that the deposition of alveolar bone under these conditions is subject to systemic regulation was demonstrated by differences between the microscopic appearance of such bone in the animals with an altered systemic background as compared with the exptl. animals with a normal systemic background. The changes in the newly deposited bone induced by the altered systemic background were: fragmentation of the bone matrix, enlargement and distortion of the osteocyte lacunae, release of osteocytes and reduction in adjacent osteoblasts.