day it was then rinsed with nanopure water and incubated in 150 ml of 60 mm na 2 hpo 4 for 1 day this cycle was repeated two more times for a total of 3 daily soakings of 100 mm cacl 2 alternated with 3 daily soakings of 60 mm na 2 hpo 4 carried out at 23 u00b0 c it had a final rinse in nanopure water before being put on a gel dryer for 30 minutes the x ray diffraction pattern matches that of calcium deficient hydroxyapatite ca 9 hpo 4 po 4 5 oh as discovered by mortier et al j of solid state chem 78 215 1989 when the bacterial cellulose was submerged in simulated body fluid a biomimetic apatite formed in its matrix apatite is identified as a natural variously colored calcium fluoride phosphate ca 5 f po 4 3 with chlorine hydroxyl or carbonate sometimes replacing the fluoride when calcium phosphate bacterial cellulose was incubated in simulated body fluid its apatite content increased even more significantly this behavior indicated that bacterial cellulose will act favorably as an orthopedic implant instead of being encapsulated by fibrous tissue the apatite layer induced by the physiological environment material should bond directly with bone drying and weighing the precipitated samples in comparison to an unaltered sample of bacterial cellulose confirmed the presence of additional apatite formed when the bacterial cellulose was exposed to the simulated body fluid the use of alizarin red s a dye commonly used to identify calcium in histology also indicated that calcium was incorporated into the matrix simulated body fluid was prepared from a protocol developed by tas biomaterials 21 1429 1438 2001 the ion concentrations of the simulated body fluid mimic that of human plasma table 1 the reagents in table 2.