Italian tree surgery is coming to a hospital near you! Scientists at Italy’s Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologia dei Materiali Ceramici [ISTEC] have developed a technique that turns wood into bone implants for animals and humans, The Royal Society of Chemistry Journal reports. The wooden implants can help nearby bones to heal and grow.
Wood, a researcher explained, has a similar physical structure to bone and the researchers selected woods such as red oak, the tropical wood sipo and rattan which can simulate bone particularly well. They then applied a series of treatments which, in stages, turned the wood into calcium phosphate whilst preserving its microstructure known as hydroxyapatite, from which the inorganic part of bone is formed. When the wood is implanted, animal and human cells are able to digest it and new bone grows in its place. The video, from Science Channel Videos, explains how bone implants can be created from wood.
These implants will be long-lasting and cost-effective but approval has not yet been granted for their use in humans.
