Study of the mineralization of coral implanted in vivo by radioactive tracers

Coral has ben used for the last ten years as bone substitution in the body because of its mechanical an osteoconductor properties. Our primary studies have shown, for the first time, the quantitative behavior of the atomic components. We study by some physical method of analysis a biocoral implanted in vivo. The natural biocorals used in this work are the calcium carbonated exoskeletons built by Madrepian coral polyps. Neutron activation analysis showed that initial coral, essentially CaCO3, becomes a new material which has a mineral composition close to that of bone. In this work, we have studied the calcification mechanism of this implant by using radioactive tracers. We have established the transfer kinetics of calcium biomaterial in the blood circuit and showed its use by the organism for skeleton mineralization.