Orientation of apatite in single osteon samples as studied by pole figures

Summary The X-ray diffraction method based on pole figures has been applied to single osteon samples in order to obtain information about the texture of the inorganic bone fraction and the way it changes during calcification. The osteon samples were cylindrically shaped, with axes corresponding to those of the haversian canals. Selection was carried out 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 osteons were selected: longitudinal, alternate, and transversal. The results indicate that in all three types of osteons, the long axis of the sample is apparently the only direction of orientation because the transversally oriented crystallites give an isotropic diffuse scattering as would be expected if all the inorganic particles were irregularly oriented around the osteon axis. The number of longitudinally oriented crystallites increases progressively from transversally oriented osteons to alternately and longitudinally oriented ones. The crystallite orientation in an axial direction increases in fully calcified osteons. This last result is in agreement with the electron microscopic finding that the long needle-shaped crystallites covering much more than a major collagen period and measuring 40–45 ? in width increase in number as calcification proceeds.