A stereologic procedure for the reconstruction of matrix and mineralized bone growth curves at formative sites in trabecular bone is presented. Iliac crest bone biopsies obtained from twenty normal individuals after tetracycline double-labeling were investigated histomorphometrically. Corresponding values for osteoid width and apparent distance between bone markers and width of mineralized bone walls were classified using a sector plotting system. Observed structure widths were converted to three-dimensional structure thicknesses by a stereologic unfolding procedure. Osteoid thickness, calcification rate, and fractional labeling of osteoid varied characteristically with increasing wall thickness and permitted the construction of curves describing the time-dependent variations in matrix and wall thicknesses. The mean thickness of completed walls was 61.9 +/- 1.5 micron (SE), and the mean bone formation period (Sigma f) was 145 days (124-168; 95% confidence interval.). The initial appositional rates for bone matrix (2.1 microns3/microns2/day) (1.4-2.9) and bone mineral (1.1 micron3/micron2/day) (0.4-1.9) declined gradually toward zero at the end of Sigma f. The initial mineralization lag time was 15 days (12-24) and increased to a maximum of 27 days during the first 45% of Sigma f. Thereafter, it decreased gradually toward zero. The height of the osteoblast nuclei gradually declined from 6.7 +/- 0.5 micron at the start of bone formation to 1.2 +/- 0.1 micron at the end. The study demonstrates that it is possible to reconstruct growth curves for trabecular bone walls based on three-dimensional values for structure thicknesses using different sections for light and fluorescence microscopy and avoiding classification according to osteoblastic nuclear morphology.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)