Metabolic bone diseases

In this work, nanometric calcium phosphate (CaP) was synthesized by wet chemical precipitation using Ca(OH)2 and H3(PO4). The subsequent heat treatment was carried out varying from 25 °C to 1000 °C, to study the changes caused in the structure of the final product through XRD, FTIR, Fluorescence, Raman, UV–Vis, DLS, Zeta Potential, SEM and TEM/EDS analyses. Cell viability was measured via MTS assays. XRD showed that the crystallinity of the synthetic calcium phosphate obtained increases with increasing heat-treatment temperature, getting close to the structure of hydroxyapatite. In the FTIR, Raman and UV–vis spectroscopic analyses, carbonate removal from the synthesized CaP structure at high heat-treatment temperatures was observed. Samples T800 and T1000 showed greater fluorescence. DLS measurements revealed the formation of aggregates at heat-treatment temperatures lower than 800 °C. According to the Zeta Potential measurements, T1000 is the most stable colloid (−28.4 ± 1.4 mV). The thermal treatment also affected the morphology of the samples, and nanowhiskers, nanorods and nanocubes were observed. In addition, the viability assay revealed that a decrease in particle sizes in CaP samples led to a decrease in metabolic activity, showing that the correct choice of particle size is the key to producing compounds that favor cell proliferation, making it a promising material for bone tissue engineering.