Effect of hydrazine deproteination on bone mineral phase: a critical view

Over the last 30 years several techniques have been developed to separate bone matrix and bone mineral, in order to allow for a study of each component independently of the other. Preservation of original characteristics of the phase studied after isolation has always been a great challenge for all such techniques. The hydrazine deproteination procedure, first proposed by Termine, has been one of the processes most widely used for studying bone mineral. It is found to be one of the most effective, notwithstanding controversy over its efficiency in bone deproteination and criticism regarding possible changes it could make to the characteristics of bone mineral. In this work, we have studied the possible chemical and physical alterations caused by the hydrazine deproteination process to bone mineral from rats and to other materials of biological interest. Materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), inductive coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), C-H-N analysis and infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), before and after hydrazine deproteination. Finally, here we present a comprehensive discussion on the criticism of hydrazine deproteination. The experimental results obtained in this work, even when compared to the results in the literature, show that most widespread criticism to the hydrazine deproteination process is not completely justified.