Bone Biomineral Properties Vary across Human Osteonal Bone.

The biomineralization of bone remains a puzzle. During Haversian remodeling in the dense human cortical bone, osteoclasts excavate a tunnel that is then filled in by osteoblasts with layers of bone of varying fibril orientations, resulting in a lamellar motif. Such bone represents an excellent possibility to increase our understanding of bone as a material as well as bone biomineralization by studying spatio/temporal variations in the biomineral across an osteon. To this end, fluorescence computed tomography and diffraction scattering computed tomography with sub-micrometer resolution is applied to obtain position resolved fluorescence spectra and diffraction patterns in a 3D volume. The microstructural properties of the apatite biomineral are not homogeneous but depend critically on the time point at which it was laid down. This indicates that the nature of bone biomineral is highly dependent on the microenvironment during bone formation and remodeling.

Internal structure of sponge glass fiber revealed by ptychographic nanotomography.

Sponge glass spicules have solicited great interest due to their mechanical and optical properties. Herein we use ptychographic nanotomography to obtain detailed insights into the internal structure of an anchor spicule from the Venus flower basket. The obtained dataset has 90nm resolution in 3D and provides quantitative determination of the electron density. The data reveal significant variations in electron density across the spicule. The central organic filament is found to be slightly but significantly displaced from the spicule central axis. Analysis of the electron density affords an estimate of a protein volume fraction in the organic filament of about 70%. In the highly mineralized part of the spicule, the electron density is seen to display circular symmetry and be neigh independent of position along the spicule long axis. Variations in the electron density beyond those included in current models of spicule mechanics are observed.