Mineralisation of soft and hard tissues and the stability of biofluids

Holt, C. , Lenton, S., Nylander, T., Sørensen, E. S. and Teixeira, S. C.M. (2014) Mineralisation of soft and hard tissues and the stability of biofluids. Journal of Structural Biology, 185(3), pp. 383-396. (doi: 10.1016/j.jsb.2013.11.009)[Book Review]

Abstract

Evidence is provided from studies on natural and artificial biofluids that the sequestration of amorphous calcium phosphate by peptides or proteins to form nanocluster complexes is of general importance in the control of physiological calcification. A naturally occurring mixture of osteopontin peptides was shown, by light and neutron scattering, to form calcium phosphate nanoclusters with a core–shell structure. In blood serum and stimulated saliva, an invariant calcium phosphate ion activity product was found which corresponds closely in form and magnitude to the ion activity product observed in solutions of these osteopontin nanoclusters. This suggests that types of nanocluster complexes are present in these biofluids as well as in milk. Precipitation of amorphous calcium phosphate from artificial blood serum, urine and saliva was determined as a function of pH and the concentration of osteopontin or casein phosphopeptides. The position of the boundary between stability and precipitation was found to agree quantitatively with the theory of nanocluster formation. Artificial biofluids were prepared that closely matched their natural counterparts in calcium and phosphate concentrations, pH, saturation, ionic strength and osmolality. Such fluids, stabilised by a low concentration of sequestering phosphopeptides, were found to be highly stable and may have a number of beneficial applications in medicine.

• Item Type: Book Reviews
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Holt, Dr Carl
• Authors: Holt, C., Lenton, S., Nylander, T., Sørensen, E. S., and Teixeira, S. C.M.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Molecular Biosciences
• Journal Name: Journal of Structural Biology
• Publisher: Elsevier Inc.
• ISSN: 1047-8477
• ISSN (Online): 1095-8657
• Published Online: 04 December 2013
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2013 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Journal of Structural Biology 185(3):383-396
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License