Event Abstract Back to Event Mineral Formation Pathways in Bone Steve Weiner1, Anat Akiva1, Michael Kerschnitzki1, Natalie Reznikov1 and Lia Addadi1 1 Weizmann Institute, Structural Biology, Israel The mineralization of bone involves the sequestering of calcium and phosphate ions from the food, and its transport to the extracellular environment, where carbonated hydroxyapatite crystals grow within the preformed collagenous organic matrix. Mammalian bone is composed of two different types of mineralized materials: the ordered material dominated by aligned bundles of collagen, and the disordered material that fills in the spaces between bundles and is composed of individual collagen fibrils, mineral and “ground mass”. Studies of the forming embryonic zebrafish tail bones and mouse long bones show that osteoblasts, as well as other cells sometimes located at some distance from the forming bone surface, contain vesicles with numerous mineral particles. In vivo Raman spectroscopy as well as EDS, indicate that the mineral phase inside cells in close association with the mineralizing matrix is OCP-like, with some ACP, and showing a Ca/P ratio very close to one. The presence of a transient disordered mineral phase on the surfaces of the forming bones of zebrafish has been documented using micro-Xray diffraction. The intracellular mineral phase is exocytosed into the extracellular pre-formed collagen fibril matrix. Here the disordered mineral aggregates disaggregate and particles enter into the fibril arrays, and crystallize. A cryo-SEM and FIB SEM serial sectioning study of the chicken embryonic bones, reveals the presence of abundant calcium phosphate mineral bearing vesicles inside cells in the proximity of the forming bones, but most significantly also within blood vessels. This implies that as yet unidentified cells at an unknown distant location are producing solid mineral for transport to the bone. This view of bone mineral pathways involving many cell types, some at great distance from the final depositional site, is consistent with observations of mineralization of embryonic sea urchins, raising the possibility that this is a widespread strategy. Keywords: cell, Calcium phosphate, Bone repair, acellullar matrix Conference: 10th World Biomaterials Congress, Montréal, Canada, 17 May - 22 May, 2016. Presentation Type: New Frontier Oral Topic: Mechanobiology of cells on biomaterials Citation: Weiner S, Akiva A, Kerschnitzki M, Reznikov N and Addadi L (2016). Mineral Formation Pathways in Bone. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. Conference Abstract: 10th World Biomaterials Congress. doi: 10.3389/conf.FBIOE.2016.01.00282 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 28 Mar 2016; Published Online: 30 Mar 2016. Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Steve Weiner Anat Akiva Michael Kerschnitzki Natalie Reznikov Lia Addadi Google Steve Weiner Anat Akiva Michael Kerschnitzki Natalie Reznikov Lia Addadi Google Scholar Steve Weiner Anat Akiva Michael Kerschnitzki Natalie Reznikov Lia Addadi PubMed Steve Weiner Anat Akiva Michael Kerschnitzki Natalie Reznikov Lia Addadi Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.