Sugar-decorated hydroxyapatite: an inorganic material bioactivated with carbohydrates.

An efficient method for the direct and covalent decoration of granules of nanostructured apatite with a sample monosaccharide is presented; the hydroxyapatite material was directly functionalised with a short azido-containing spacer arm, to which α-propargyl glucopyranoside has been chemoselectively ligated by Huisgen-type cycloaddition. The 'glycosylated' hydroxypatite was characterised by its ability to interact with glucose recognising lectins.