An in vitro model system utilizing de-mineralized periodontium tissues was developed for investigating the molecular controls involved in the spatial deposition of minerals on collagenous tissues. Preferential mineral deposition was observed when the de-mineralized tissue sections were incubated in solutions containing a supersaturation of calcium and phosphate ions with respect to hydroxyapatite (HA). Energy dispersive X-Ray (EDX) analysis demonstrated that these minerals are likely to be octacalcium phosphate (OCP) or dicalcium phosphate dihydrate (DCPD); further characterization with a secondary technique is required to draw a more definitive conclusion. The role of collagen fibrils in mineralization was tested by removing all the non-collagenous components from the tissue sections with proteolytic enzymes and exposing them to similar mineralization conditions as the control samples. A substantially less amount of minerals were formed in these samples; this correlates well with the hypothesis in the literature that collagen fibrils alone cannot initiate mineral formation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/32133 |
| Date | 16 February 2012 |
| Creators | Song, Janice |
| Contributors | Sone, Eli D. |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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