Bone microarchitecture and mineralization were determined at three-dimensional synchrotron radiation micro computed tomography in two inbred mice strains. Distal metaphysis of the left femur was imaged in three dimensions at 6.65 microm, whereas the right femur was analyzed with histomorphometry. Three-dimensional quantitative parameters of trabecular and cortical bone architecture were compute...

Enamel is a hard nanocomposite bioceramic with significant resilience that protects the mammalian tooth from external physical and chemical damages. The remarkable mechanical properties of enamel are associated with its hierarchical structural organization and its thorough connection with underlying dentin. This dynamic mineralizing system offers scientists a wealth of information that allows t...

Mine geologists use the term “garnierite” for the green Ni-rich silicate minerals that occur in many Ni-laterite deposits. However, garnierite is not a mineral species recognized by the Commission on New Mineral and Mineral Names (CNMMN). Actually, garnierite is a general name for the NiMg hydrosilicates that usually occur as an intimate mixture that commonly includes two or more of the followi...

The effects of creatine (Cr) supplementation on primary rat osteoblast-like cells cultured as monolayer and micromass were investigated. Cr was added to the medium at concentrations of either 10 or 20 mM. At various time points, the cell cultures were analyzed morphologically, metabolically and biochemically. The degree of differentiation of primary osteoblast-like cell cultures was higher in m...

In this work, a biologically catalyzed CO2 mineralization process for the capture of CO2 from point sources was designed, constructed at a laboratory scale, and, using standard chemical process scale-up protocols, was modeled and evaluated at an industrial scale. A yeast display system in Saccharomyces cerevisae was used to screen several carbonic anhydrase isoforms and mineralization peptides ...

While the basic cellular contributions to bone differentiation and mineralization are widely accepted, the regulation of these processes at the intracellular level remains inadequately understood. Our laboratory recently identified annexin 2 as a protein involved in osteoblastic mineralization. Annexin 2 was overexpressed twofold in SaOSLM2 osteoblastic cells as a fusion protein with green fluo...

One of our goals is to understand the mechanisms that deposit mineral within collagen fibrils, and as a first step we recently determined the size exclusion characteristics of the fibril. This study revealed that apatite crystals up to 12 unit cells in size can access the water within the fibril, whereas molecules larger than a 40-kDa protein are excluded. Based on these observations, we propos...