Imaging resin-cast osteocyte Lacuno-Canalicular system at bone-bioactive glass interface by scanning electron microscopy

Abstract

The morphology of the osteocyte lacuno-canalicular system at the bone-biomaterial implantinterface has not been fully investigated. In this study, the resin-cast scanning electron microscopy technique was used, for the first time, to image the lacuno-canalicular network within neoformed bone around bioactive glass ~BG! particles implanted in rat tibia bone marrow. The most salient finding was that the osteocyte canaliculi pass through the calcium-phosphorus layer formed at the bone-BG interface and reach the silica-rich layer of the reacted BG.