2011 年 32 巻 9 号 p. 545-550
Hard tissues composed of hydroxyapatite and collagen have evolved in biological and structural features since the dawn of time. The ancient acellular hard tissue, aspidin, was found in agathonae in the Paleozoic age and, at a hundred million years later, this tissue had been transited to be a cellular hard tissue. The hard tissue acquired a function of bone remodeling. The characteristic nanostructure in aspidin has been retained in our bone tissue. Artificial bone including hydroxyapatite ceramics and hydroxyapatite/collagen composites we have developed undergo a similar process of this evolution. Controlling surface and interfacial nanostructures of these materials will play one of great important roles for achieving the next generation of artificial bone that can activate bone physiology and can regenerate bone-marrow tissue. In this paper, we introduce our investigations and industrialization of artificial bones as well as our trial using fish scale collagen toward collagen-based biomaterials from the structural point of view.