Dental enamel is made up of 95% hydroxyapatite (HAP), a complex inorganic mineral that is difficult to recreate <i>in vitro</i>. Kinetic analysis of calcium phosphate mineralization can improve understanding of the formation mechanism and lead to future applications in medicine. Previous research in HAP mineralization has typically used end point analysis. This research focuses on the kinetic effects of templated and untemplated mineralization reactions using static absorbance experiments and dynamic microfluidic experiments. Absorbance experiments, using an indicator molecule to link color intensity to mineralization progress, allow for high throughput, but lack controlled mixing in a static well-plate. Microfluidic devices, integrated with optical microscopy and a Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM), allow for kinetic analysis in dynamic flow conditions. This method utilizes laminar flow to directly and precisely control mixing, but is limited in analysis throughput. One experiment in a microfluidic device directs solution flow directly above a template-molecule coated surface, leading to accurate measurements of surface mineral formation. Both static absorbance and dynamic microfluidic techniques have been used and compared in the analysis of DNA aptamers as templates for calcium phosphate mineralization and have been shown to be promising in characterizing the kinetics of the mineralization of HAP.

Development of methods for kinetic analysis of templated and untemplated calcium phosphate mineralization

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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