Skeletal biomineralization: Patterns, processes and evolutionary trends / Биоминерализация скелета: закономерности, процессы и эволюционные тенденции

Our understanding of the mechanisms by which organisms fonn minerals has progressed in the past two decades but is still at a rudimentary stage. Any general theory of biomineralization must explain the formation of solid phases from biological fluids in tenns of physical parameters such as supersaturation, ionic strength, pH, surface energies and the character and quantity of active sites. Knowledge of the functions of the organic matrix' in mediating mineral deposition is of basic importance to any understanding of biomineralization..
The earliest explanations of the fonnation of mineral by organisms concentrated on the inorganic ions and looked upon mineralization merely as a precipitation due to mass action.. The mineral...fonning sites were thought to be in equilibrium with body fluids. When the solubility product was exceeded, mineral was formed. On further consideration, it was realized that this was an oversimplification and that the mineralization of a prefonned matrix is a delicate interplay between cells and matrix components. <...>