New Preparation Method of Bone Samples for Raman Microspectrometry

Raman microspectrometry is increasingly becoming recognized as a signi® cant method for mineralized tissues investigations. For bone studies, conventional Raman spectra are disturbed by ̄ uorescence problems.1,2 A hydrazine treatment of bone has been used ef® ciently to solve this problem,3 but this method is destructive in terms of the organic part of this tissue and reduces some of the phosphate band intensities on the Raman spectra.4 Since we know that some biological apatites (dentine and bone for example) exhibit a very similar spectrum with respect to mineral components, the nondestruction of the organic part appears to be an important condition for spectral investigations. The aim of this work is to ® nd a simple method to reduce the bone ̄ uorescence that allows the Raman spectral attribution of a bone sample without destruction of the organic part of the tissue.