The effect of bone bank preservation on the calcifying mechanism.

A fundamental orthopaedic problem to-day is the understanding of the fate of bone transplants. Since homogenous preserved bone is increasingly used, this study investigated the survival of the calcifying mechanism under storage conditions typically employed in preserving homogenous bone for orthopaedic use. It was our hope that the method might be used to indicate the relative value of the various means of preserving bone. The enhancement ofthe value ofthe preserved bone used in transplantation by reactivating the calcifying mechanism presented another subject of inquiry. Calcification in vitro of the hypertrophic epiphysial cartilage of rachitic rat tibiae was employed in this study. This method is a useful indication of “ local factors “ involved in calcification. The appearance of new calcification depends on the functioning of the complete system essential for mineralisation. This method is a valid one for the purpose of this investigation, for the histological appearance of calcification in vitro of the hypertrophic epiphysial cartilage resembles that obtained in calcification in vivo. New mineral deposits occur in the matrix and have a honeycomb-like structure. X-ray diffraction studies have shown that the new mineralisation obtained has the same lattice for calcification in vitro as that found for calcification in vivo, namely apatite (Sobel and Hanok 1952).