A search for apatite crystals in the gap zone of collagen fibrils in bone using dark-field illumination.

Bone
Henry P SchwarczK Grandfield

Abstract

Bright-field transmission electron microscope (TEM) images of ion milled or focused ion beam (FIB) sections of cortical bone sectioned parallel to the long axis of collagen fibrils display an electron-dense phase in the gap zones of the fibrils, as well as elongated plates (termed mineral lamellae) comprised of apatite crystals, which surround and lie between the fibrils. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) studies by others have shown that the material in the gap zones is calcium phosphate. Dark-field (DF) images are capable of revealing the projected position of crystals of apatite in a section of bone. We obtained bright field (BF) images of ion milled sections of bovine femoral cortical bone cut parallel to fibril axes (longitudinal view), and compared them with DF images obtained using the (002) apatite reflection to test a widely held theory that most of the mineral in bone resides in the gap zones. Most apatite crystals which were illuminated in DF images and which projected onto gap zones were extensions of crystals that also project onto adjacent overlap zones. However, in BF images, overlap zones do not appear to contain significant amounts of mineral, implying that ...Continue Reading

Citations

Oct 10, 2020·Nature Communications·YiFei XuNico Sommerdijk
Dec 10, 2020·Bioactive Materials·Zhengwei LiXufeng Niu
Oct 14, 2020·Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials·Siyuan PangIwona Jasiuk
Aug 21, 2021·Current Osteoporosis Reports·Asier MuñozAlessandra Carriero

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