Towards understanding biomineralization: calcium phosphate in a biomimetic mineralization process

Abstract

Biomineralization processes result in organic/inorganic hybrid materials with complex shapes, hierarchical structures, and superior material properties. Recent developments in biomineralization and biomaterials have demonstrated that calcium phosphate particles play an important role in the formation of hard tissues in nature. In this paper, current concepts in biomineralization, such as nano assembly, biomimetic shell structure, and their applications are introduced. It is confirmed experimentally that enamel- or bone-liked apatite can be achieved by oriented aggregations using nano calcium phosphates as starting materials. The assembly of calcium phosphate can be either promoted or inhibited by different biomolecules so that the kinetics can be regulated biologically. In this paper, the role of nano calcium phosphate in tissue repair is highlighted. Furthermore, a new, interesting result on biomimetic mineralization is introduced, which can offer an artificial shell for living cells via a biomimetic method.

Keywords

biomineralization / calcium phosphate / tissue repair

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Acknowledgements

We thank the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2007CB516806), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 20571064 and 10672145), and Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (R407087) for their support in the studies of calcium phosphates. This work was also supported by the Innovative Research Team (IRT0654) of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg