Milk caseins stabilize calcium and phosphate ions and make them available to the neonate. Tryptic digestion of the caseins yields phosphopeptides from their polar N-terminal regions that contain clusters of phosphorylated seryl residues. These phosphoseryl clusters have been hypothesized to be responsible for the interaction between the caseins and calcium phosphate that lead to the formation o...

Casein phosphor-peptides-amorphous calcium phosphate (CPP-ACP) products have been widely used in the field of preventive dentistry. CPP exerts its main effect through binding and stabilizing calcium and phosphate ions (ACP) in an amorphous, non-crystalline state where they can enter enamel and enhance remineralization. The following article presents a background on these products, in addition t...

We investigate "Posner molecules", calcium phosphate clusters with chemical formula Ca9(PO4)6. Originally identified in hydroxyapatite, Posner molecules have also been observed as free-floating molecules in vitro. The formation and aggregation of Posner molecules have important implications for bone growth, and may also play a role in other biological processes such as the modulation of calcium...

Hydroxyapatite (HA), a material proven to be biocompatible within the human body, has been produced to a high level of purity. This material has been applied as a coating on Ti-6Al-4V alloy by using the air plasma spraying technique. The coat was characterizted with SEM, XRD, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy methods to consist of a mixture of calcium phosphates including HA mainly and traces of tric...

An animal's hard tissue is mainly composed of crystalline calcium phosphate. In vitro, small changes in the reaction conditions affect the species of calcium phosphate formed, whereas, in vivo, distinct types of crystalline calcium phosphate are formed in a well-controlled spatiotemporal-dependent manner. A variety of proteins are involved in hard-tissue formation; however, the mechanisms by wh...

Phosphocitrate [PC] is a powerful inhibitor of biological crystallization and a potential disease modifying drug for crystal associated diseases such as crystals associated osteoarthritis [OA]. Recently, it has been reported that a new PC complex salt, calcium sodium PC [CaNaPC], is much more powerful than its precursor, sodium PC [NaPC], in reducing the size of chemically-induced calcified pla...

The present in vitro study created nanometer crystalline hydroxyapatite (HA) and amorphous calcium phosphate for novel orthopedic applications. Specifically, nano-crystalline HA and amorphous calcium phosphate nanoparticles were synthesized by a wet chemical process followed by hydrothermal treatment for 2 hours at 200 degrees C and 70 degrees C, respectively. Resulting particles were then pres...

A cogent understanding of the microstructure, and indeed nano-structure, of hydroxyapatite (HA) and the interface between Ti-6Al-4V and HA is crucial to its appropriateness as a biomaterials. This paper reports the analysis of plasma-sprayed HA/Ti-6Al-4V composites by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) to elucidate the intricate nature of...

Recent experimental evidence suggests that octacalcium phosphate (OCP) is a necessary precursor to hydroxyapaptite in the amorphous-crystalline transformation that occurs after the spon..: taneous precipitation of calcium phosphate in the pH range 7.00-9.25. The transformation appears to occur by heterogeneous nucleation of OCP by the initially formed amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) phase. AC...