Abstract
Health issues pertaining to the formation of urinary calculi is now a cause of growing concern. Also, the mechanism of lithogenesis is yet to be clearly understood towards therapeutic process. In the present work, we propose a simple and cost-effective gel medium-based in vitro method for the real-time investigation of heterogeneous crystallization of components of the urinary calculi, namely, calcium oxalate (CaOx) and calcium phosphate (CaP). Sodium metasilicate is used as the gel medium to investigate formation CaOx crystals on CaP [hydroxyapatite (HAp) and brushite (DCPD)] seeds. Experiments were carried out using direct (oxalic acid –OA) and indirect (ascorbic acid – AA) sources. We observed dissolution of CaP seeds and subsequent formation of CaOx in and around the surface of CaP seeds. Further, irrespective of the CaP seeds, the direct and indirect oxalate sources (OA & AA) results in the crystallization of COM and COD respectively. We also found that for higher values of pH, the dissolution of CaP got lowered, which in turn inhibited the crystallization of CaOx. Contact angle measurements revealed the hydrophilic and super hydrophilic nature of DCPD and HAp respectively, thereby confirming the surface feasibility for heterogeneous nucleation. This in vitro simple and cost-effective method facilitates understanding of the complex in-vivo crystallization process.
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