Abstract
Osteoporosis is an incurable chronic disease characterized by a lack of mineral mass in the bones. Here, the full recovery of osteoporotic bone is achieved by using a calcium phosphate polymer-induced liquid-precursor (CaP-PILP). This free-flowing CaP-PILP material displays excellent bone inductivity and is able to readily penetrate into collagen fibrils and form intrafibrillar hydroxyapatite crystals oriented along the c-axis. This ability is attributed to the microstructure of the material, which consists of homogeneously distributed ultrasmall (≈1 nm) amorphous calcium phosphate clusters. In vitro study shows the strong affinity of CaP-PILP to osteoporotic bone, which can be uniformly distributed throughout the bone tissue to significantly increase the bone density. In vivo experiments show that the repaired bones exhibit satisfactory mechanical performance comparable with normal ones, following a promising treatment of osteoporosis by using CaP-PILP. The discovery provides insight into the structure and property of biological nanocluster materials and their potential for hard tissue repair.