Artificial bone made from wood

Italian scientists have developed a process of turning wood into artificial bone with the ultimate goal of transplanting into the human body.

Bone replacement materials made from wood allow natural bone to heal faster than metal and porcelain implants. The expert group of the Ceramic Materials Science and Technology Research Institute in Faenza city decided to choose wood to make artificial bone because it has an internal structure similar to natural bone.

(Artwork: Ourstory.com)

To create alternative bone types, the team began by choosing a good log from red oak, rattan or sliced ​​wood. Then they heated the log until all that was left was pure carbon - the basic ingredient of charcoal. Then scientists spray calcium onto carbon, creating calcium carbide.

Subsequent physicochemical steps will turn calcium carbide into carbonated hydroxyapatite, which can be implanted into the body as an artificial bone . The whole process takes about 1 week and costs about 850 USD (over 14.5 million VND) for a block of wood to be processed. Each wood block like that creates an artificial bone. The team said they could create bones of any size or shape.

According to expert Anna Tampieri, the team leader, the implant made of wood has superior advantages over titanium or porcelain. Because the material is made of porous wood, not as thick as metal or porcelain, natural bone will stick to artificial bones faster and more firmly.

The artificial bone created by the above procedure has only been tested on sheep. It will take some time for this bone to be used for humans. In the short term, this material with high temperature resistance and mechanical pressure can be applied in many different areas, such as the development of catalytic mufflers, space exploration vessels, turbines. for power plants, aircraft engines .