A Polarized Raman Spectroscopic Method for Advanced Analyses of the Osteon Lamellar Structure of Human Bone

Raman spectroscopy has recently been used for quantitative analyses of cortical bone tissue and related materials, such as dentin and enamel. While those analyses have proven useful as potential diagnostic tools, the Raman spectrum of bone encrypts a wealth of additional molecular scale details about structure and crystal arrangement, which are yet to be unfolded. Such details directly link to both bone physiology and pathology. In this work, a triple monochromator spectrometer with high spectral resolution, employed in polarized light configurations, was used to extract quantitative details about the preferential crystallographic orientation of apatite and collagen components in a human proximal femoral cortical bone sample. This body of information was then used to model the bone structure at the nanometric scale through a methodology that could be key in assessments of bone structure in health and disease.