An irregular mesoporous hydroxyapatite (meso-HA), Ca-10(PO4)(6)(OH)(2), is successfully prepared from Ca(NO3)(2)center dot 4H(2)O and NH4H2PO4 using surfactant cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) as template. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results reveal that the positive head of CTAB is assembled on the surface precipitated HA and much NH4+ is enclosed in precipitated HA before calcination. Field scanning electron microscope (FSEM) reveals that there exist many interconnected pores throughout the HA reticular skeleton. Nitrogen adsorption-desorption experiment exhibits a mesoporous material type IV curve, and pore size distribution calculated from the desorption branch of the isotherms based on Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) model shows that most pores throughout the HA reticular skeleton are sized at about 40 run, but the pores are not uniform on the whole, owning to decomposition of the "organic" CTAB templating structures and ammonium salt enclosed in the precipitated HA. The specific surface area of irregular meso-HA is calculated to be 37.6 m(2)/g according to the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) equation. Moreover, after polylactic acid/meso-HA (PLA/meso-HA) composites degraded 12 weeks in normal saline at 37 degrees C, the interconnected pores throughout the HA skeleton were enlarged and sized in micron degree, which resemble trabecular bone structure very much. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.