X-ray diffraction and electron microscope study of osteons during calcification

Summary To obtain information on the changes in the inorganic bone fraction during calcification, low- and wide-angle X-ray diffraction techniques and electron microscopy have been applied to single osteon samples. The samples were cylindrically shaped and their axes corresponded to the axes of the Haversian canals. The selection was made according to the degree of calcification and the orientation of collagen bundles and inorganic particles. Osteons at both the initial and final stages of calcification were chosen. Arrangements of fiber bundles and inorganic particles in successive lamellae characteristic of three types of osteon were selected, that is, longitudinally structured osteons, transversely structured osteons, and alternately structured osteons. The results indicate that in osteonic lamellar bone there are two types of inorganic particles: (1) granules arranged in linear or needle-shaped entities with maximum width 40–45 Å, which are regularly distributed at the level of the main band of the collagen fibrils where their maximum length reaches the length of the main band itself; that is, about 400 Å; and (2) very long crystallites, with a diameter of 40–45 Å, which grow with their crystallographicc-axis parallel to the collagen fibrils and cover much more than a major collagen period.