Collagen is a known biological structural scaffold that is important in the calcium phosphate mineralization of bone. Real-time, kinetic analysis of collagen mineralization has not previously been reported with good time resolution. Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) can measure changes in mass on a surface in real time. In this work, a collagen hydrogel was deposited on a QCM surface to measure mineralization via mass loading in real time and to analyze the influence of non-collagenous protein mimics such as poly-aspartic acid and known DNA aptamers. Collagen hydrogels were successfully deposited on the QCM surface and showed fibril formation, but initially led to instrument overload and a loss of resonance locking during mineralization. With improved experimental methods, stability has improved and a clear difference in mineralization is apparent when different DNA aptamers are used in solution. Infrared spectroscopy (IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirm the presence of mineral. Further experimentation will focus on elucidating the mechanism of templated mineralization through real-time kinetic analysis.

Quartz crystal microbalance analysis of collagen mineralization kinetics

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