Texture measurements of hydroxyapatite crystallites at bone-implant interfaces in sheep tibia

The preferred orientation of hydroxyapatite Ca-10(PO4)(6)(OH)(2) (HAp) crystallites at the interface bone-implant in sheep tibia bones has been measured with the neutron 2-axis diffiractometer D20 at the Institut Max von Laue-Paul Langevin, extracted 60 days after implantation. The implant has two faces, one coated and one non-coated with plasma-sprayed HAp (80 mu m). We probed the samples with a spatial resolution of 0.5 mm started from the interface in order to inspect the reorganisation of the HAp crystallite distribution after implantation.