“…Intrafibrillar mineralization (IMC) has been shown to be a predominant factor to the biomechanics of natural bone, and thus, synthesis of mineralized collagen with intrafibrillar HA is recognized as a crucial factor for imitating bone extracellular matrix (Feng et al, ; Fu et al, ; Lian et al, ; Liu et al, ; Qiu et al, ; Xu et al, ; Zhang et al, ). We have previously reported on the fabrication of hierarchical, intrafibrillarly mineralized collagen with distinct nanostructures mimicking the natural bone for use in bone tissue engineering according to the principle of a biomimetic strategy (Feng et al, ; Lian et al, ; Liao, Cui, Zhang, & Feng, ; Xu et al, ; Zhang et al, ). IMC materials have shown impressive promoting effects on osteogenic differentiation and bone regeneration both in vitro and in vivo in studies by our group and others (Feng et al, ; Fu et al, ; Lian et al, ; Liu et al, ; Qiu et al, ; Xu et al, ; Zhang et al, ), suggesting that IMC may be an ideal bone scaffold material in bone tissue engineering.…”