Orientation of mineral crystals by collagen fibers during in vivo bone engineering: An X-ray diffraction imaging study

The mechanism of mineralized bone matrix deposition was investigated taking advantage of a tissue engineering approach in which bone tissue is formed when porous ceramic scaffold is loaded with bone marrow stromal cells and implanted in vivo. The aim of our study is to point out the interaction between the newly formed mineral crystals and the scaffold imposing the three-dimensional desired architecture to the growing bone. High spatial resolution Small Angle X-ray Scattering measurements obtained using synchrotron radiation and X-ray waveguide as optical element allowed a local structural study at the bone–scaffold interface. Using an original methodology for data analysis, we obtained a two-dimensional microscopic map of the mineralization degree, the collagen presence and the mineral orientation degree around the scaffold pore.