Kinetics of the diffusion of some elements evaluated by neutron activation in a coral implanted in vivo

Some studies show that a coral implanted on bone tissue is gradually transformed to become a neoformed bone. The transformation of a coral used as a biomaterial implanted 'in vivo' in some ovine jaw-bones was determined quantitatively by NAA for the first time. Each month and during 9 months, biopsies were extracted. For neutron production, the nuclear reaction 9Be(d,n)10B was used with 17.5 MeV energy deuterons. The neutrons had a mean energy of 7 MeV and a flux of 1012 n cm-2 s-1. The radioactivation generated permitted concentration measurements of Ca, P, Mg, Sr and F in each part of the biopsies and a study of mineral transformations versus time in the coral implanted. Three months after implantation, Ca belonging CaCO3 represented 11% and Ca provided by the apatite formed represented 20% of total mass. These quantitative evaluations clearly showed that five months after implantation, the coral had become a neo-formed bone. (author) 8 refs.; 3 figs.; 3 tabs