Oct 27, 2010 14:36 GMT  ·  By

A team of researchers from the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) managed to visualize in great detail and imitate the process of bone formation in a laboratory, for the first time.

A bone is made out of collagen fibers, in which there are calcium phosphate deposits under the form of nanocrystals.

The team led by Dr. Nico Sommerdijk (Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry) included researchers from TU/e and the University of Illinois.

The researchers were able to reproduce the growth of the calcium phosphate inside the collagen, in the laboratory, in conditions similar to those within the human body.

Under close observation, collagen fibers showed the researchers that they control the mineral formation process, thus the formation of the bones, and that they are not just a template for the deposition of the calcium.

The biomolecules that scientists first thought were in charge of this process had another role in the mineralization process – they kept the calcium phosphate in solution until the mineral growth started.

Seeing this whole process was possible thanks to the cryoTitan, a unique electron microscope with an extremely high resolution, that can even differentiate single atoms.

The researchers investigated samples that were frozen very fast, so that the process could be observed in steps.

Sommerdijk said that his group has no intention of passing to bone production, because even if they “have taken a big step forwards in the area of bone formation, our interest is in understanding, not production.”

An Italian research institute (ISTEC) however, is already working on the development of new bone implants, based on the research carried out by Sommerdijk and his post-doc Fabio Nudelman.

The next step for Sommerdijk and Nudelman, is to use the same principle and make other types of materials, and they are starting with magnetite – a material that could be used for data storage or as a biomarker.

“I am seriously convinced that we can make all kinds of materials using these principles”, said Sommerdijk.

“The biomimetic formation of magnetic materials is a new area that is still completely unexplored.”

The paper describing the results is available on the Nature Materials website and will be published in the December edition of the journal.

Watch the mechanisms of bone growth viewed with detail: