Transient precursor strategy or very small biological apatite crystals?

Abstract

The mechanisms of skeletal mineralization have been studied and debated for decades. Recent Raman spectroscopic identification of octacalcium phosphate-like phosphate ions and possibly amorphous calcium phosphate ions in nascent bone mineral were claimed to support a transient precursor strategy for bone apatite formation. However, this data does not refute the theory that the newest, detectable bone mineral is very small, poorly crystalline biological apatite, because non-apatitic phosphate species have previously been identified in biological apatite and detected on the surfaces of nano-sized hydroxyapatite crystals.