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Contribution to understand the biomineralization of bones

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Abstract

Introduction

The goal is to propose a material scientific hypothesis for the atomic arrangement of calcium phosphates during the mineralization of bones.

Materials and methods

It was reached by the analysis of bones of healthy and osteoporotic rats using analytical transmission electron microscopic methods.

Results

Electron diffraction patterns show hydroxyapatite (HAP) as dominant phase within the mineralized areas. In the electron energy loss spectrum, a double peak of the phosphorous L-edge seems to be a characteristic feature of the phosphorous binding in biological HAP. The hypothesis bases on periodic features on the collagen surface which agree with distances between oxygen atoms in the (200) plane of octacalcium phosphate (OCP). Bridge pillars for the HAP network consist of OCP coupled with a half unit cell on collagen by oxygen–hydrogen bridges. Possibly, the metastable OCP bridges are only a transient step, while the mineralization is starting. OCP and HAP couple by similar distances of calcium atoms in an interface close to the (100) planes of the OCP and the HAP network. To reach the perfect overlap of the equidistant Ca atoms, the HAP network has to be rotated by 22.5° around the a-axis, 11.5° around the c-axis of HAP, and 10.1° around an axis perpendicular to a and c.

Conclusions

A supercell based on this idea is able to explain the dominance of HAP in the electron diffraction patterns, the arrangement of the (002) lattice planes perpendicular to the collagen fiber axis, and sections of high-resolution TEM images.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Christine Kern from the Justus Liebig-University Giessen for provision of the rat bones and Sina Rößler (TU Dresden) for provision of silicate samples as well as Dina Bieberstein from the Leibniz-Institute for Solid State and Materials Research (IFW) Dresden for the careful electron-microscopic preparation of the cross-sections. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, Collaborative Research Centre Transregio 79—subprojects Z2, M3, and M5).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden, Helmholtzstraße 20, 01069, Dresden, Germany

    Jürgen Thomas & Thomas Gemming

  2. Max Bergmann Center of Biomaterials and Institute of Materials Science, Technische Universität Dresden, Budapester Str. 27, 01069, Dresden, Germany

    Hartmut Worch & Benjamin Kruppke

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  1. Jürgen Thomas
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Correspondence to Jürgen Thomas.

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Thomas, J., Worch, H., Kruppke, B. et al. Contribution to understand the biomineralization of bones. J Bone Miner Metab 38, 456–468 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00774-020-01083-4

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