Posted on 06/17/2009 7:36:57 AM PDT by neverdem
Pirates can now trade in their peg-legs for real legs as scientists transform wood into bone.
In a Royal Society of Chemistry journal Italian chemists show that ordinary wood can be turned into bone suitable for repairing damaged limbs.
It brings a whole new meaning to the term "tree surgery".
The microstructure of the wood is the perfect natural template for making bone as it allows growth of blood vessels and tissues, Anna Tampieri and colleagues report in the Journal of Materials Chemistry.
By treating wood with a fairly simple set of chemical processes, the natural structure of the wood is retained.
The wood is first decomposed to leave a carbon framework, and then reacted with calcium, then oxygen and then carbon dioxide.
A final reaction with a phosphate donor transforms the framework into hydroxyapatite, the main constituent of bone.
This structure retention could help the bone be integrated into the body more easily than current replacement materials, which do not share this organic-like structure.
Tampieri suggests the material could finds other uses: she says its high strength:weight ratio could make it ideally suited for use in space vehicles.
Anna Tampieri et al, J. Mater. Chem, 2009, DOI: 10.1039/b900333a
Jon Edwards
Media Relations Officer
Royal Society of Chemistry, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BA
(Excerpt) Read more at rsc.org ...
Hydroxyapatite (HA) bone scaffolds characterized by highly organized hierarchical structures have been obtained by chemically transforming native woods through a sequence of thermal and hydrothermal processes. The whole chemical conversion has been carried out through five steps from native wood to porous hydroxyapatite: 1) pyrolysis of ligneous raw materials to produce carbon templates characterized by the natural complex anisotropic pore structure; 2) carburization process by vapour or liquid calcium permeation to yield calcium carbide; 3) oxidation process to transform calcium carbide into calcium oxide; 4) carbonation by hydrothermal process under CO2 pressure for the further conversion into calcium carbonate; 5) phosphatization process through hydrothermal treatment to achieve the final hydroxyapatite phase. The five steps of the phase transformation process have been set up in order to achieve total phase conversion and purity maintaining the original native microstructure. An innovative biomimetic apatite hierarchically structured in parallel fastened hollow microtubules has been synthesized, structurally characterized and proposed as a new inorganic biomorphic scaffold providing a biomimetic nanostructure surface for fascinating bone engineering applications.
Countdown to wood , uh bone, jokes 5-4-3.....
CARBON DIOXIDE???? I thought carbon dioxide was a pollutant and going to kill us all...
The best wood is from the Arrrrdennes forests.
regenerative medicine ping - this could be the scaffold for induced pluripotent stem cells. We shall see.
"Arrrrr, science is me bucko!"
Didn’t Adam already use wood for Buster’s bones? I bet Obama uses this for the new cars he is going to build.
Gives new meaning to the phrase, “I’ve got wood”
BTTT
We're going to have long term hip replacements and Asimov's robots?
Cool.
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