New cellular insights in bone development
Most of us don’t think about our teeth and bones until one aches or breaks. A team of engineers at Washington University in St. Louis looked deep within collagen fibers to see how the body forms new bone and teeth, seeking insights into faster bone healing and new biomaterials.
Young-Shin Jun, professor of energy, environmental & chemical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science and director of the Environmental NanoChemistry Lab, leads a team of experts in nucleation, the initial step in forming a solid phase in a fluid system.
While nucleation of minerals in bone and teeth is not well understood, researchers do know that bone minerals form inside of collagen, the main protein found in skin and other connective tissues. Jun and Doyoon Kim, a doctoral student in her lab, studied how miniscule gaps in collagen’s fiber structure facilitate the nucleation of calcium phosphate, which is necessary for bone formation and maintenance.
The findings, recently published in Nature Communications, provide a new view into the current theory of calcium phosphate nucleation in a confined space.
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