Juniper wood as a possible implant material

Wood as Possible Renewable Material for Bone Implants-Literature Review

Bone fractures and bone defects affect millions of people every year. Metal implants for bone fracture fixation and autologous bone for defect reconstruction are used extensively in treatment of these pathologies. Simultaneously, alternative, sustainable, and biocompatible materials are being researched to improve existing practice. Wood as a biomaterial for bone repair has not been considered until the last 50 years. Even nowadays there is not much research on solid wood as a biomaterial in bone implants. A few species of wood have been investigated. Different techniques of wood preparation have been proposed. Simple pre-treatments such as boiling in water or preheating of ash, birch and juniper woods have been used initially. Later researchers have tried using carbonized wood and wood derived cellulose scaffold. Manufacturing implants from carbonized wood and cellulose requires more extensive wood processing-heat above 800 °C and chemicals to extract cellulose. Carbonized wood and cellulose scaffolds can be combined with other materials, such as silicon carbide, hydroxyapatite, and bioactive glass to improve biocompatibility and mechanical durability. Throughout the publications wood implants have provided good biocompatibility and osteoconductivity thanks to wood's porous structure.

Potential of Juniperus communis L as a nutraceutical in human and veterinary medicine

Plants have been used for thousands of years as medicine for treating variety of diseases and medical complaints by most of the civilizations. Juniperus communis L. is an evergreen aromatic shrub with high therapeutic potential for the treatment of diseases in human and animals. The plant is rich in aromatic oils, invert sugars, resins, catechin, organic acid, terpenic acids, leucoanthocyanidin, alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, gums, lignins, wax, etc. Juniper berries or extract of the plant has traditionally been used as diuretic, anti-arthritis, anti-diabetes, antiseptic as well as for the treatment of gastrointestinal and autoimmune disorders. The essential oil and extracts of juniper have been experimentally documented to have antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal activities. Recent studies have also found anti-inflammatory, cytotoxic, hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects of berries in experimental models. Further, the essential oil incorporation retarded lipid peroxidation in preserved meat due to its high antioxidant effect which not only improved meat product quality but also improved shelf life of the product. Thus natural antioxidant such as juniper can be used in place synthetic antioxidant for the preservation and improving self-life of meat products. New well designed clinical trials in human and animals using well-characterized J. communis extract or oil need to be conducted so that additional information is generated which can support the use of this natural product as a nutraceutical.

Effects of heat treatment of wood on hydroxylapatite type mineral precipitation and biomechanical properties in vitro

Wood is a natural fiber reinforced composite. It structurally resembles bone tissue to some extent. Specially heat-treated birch wood has been used as a model material for further development of synthetic fiber reinforced composites (FRC) for medical and dental use. In previous studies it has been shown, that heat treatment has a positive effect on the osteoconductivity of an implanted wood. In this study the effects of two different heat treatment temperatures (140 and 200 degrees C) on wood were studied in vitro. Untreated wood was used as a control material. Heat treatment induced biomechanical changes were studied with flexural and compressive tests on dry birch wood as well as on wood after 63 days of simulated body fluid (SBF) immersion. Dimensional changes, SBF sorption and hydroxylapatite type mineral formation were also assessed. The results showed that SBF immersion decreases the biomechanical performance of wood and that the heat treatment diminishes the effect of SBF immersion on biomechanical properties. With scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analysis it was shown that hydroxylapatite type mineral precipitation formed on the 200 degrees C heat-treated wood. An increased weight gain of the same material during SBF immersion supported this finding. The results of this study give more detailed insight of the biologically relevant changes that heat treatment induces in wood material. Furthermore the findings in this study are in line with previous in vivo studies.

The effect of heat treatment of wood on osteoconductivity

Wood is a natural porous fibre composite, which has some structural similarities to bone. Recently, it has been used as a modelling material in developing synthetic fibre-reinforced composite to be used as load-bearing non-metallic artificial bone material. In this study, the behaviour of wood implanted into bone was studied in vivo in the femur bone of the rabbit. Wood was pre-treated by heat, which altered its chemical composition and structure, as well as the biomechanical properties. In the heat treatment, wood's dimensional stability is enhanced, equilibrium moisture content reduces and the biological durability increases. Cone-shaped implants were manufactured from heat-treated (at 200 and 140 degrees C) birch wood (Betula pubescens) and from untreated birch. A total of 62 implants were placed in the distal femur of 50 white New Zealand rabbits. The behaviour of the implants was studied at 4, 8 and 20 weeks with histological and histometrical analysis. Osteoconductive contact line and the presence of fibrous tissue and foreign body reaction were determined. The amount of fibrous tissue diminished with time, and the absence of foreign body reaction was found to be in correlation to the amount of heat treatment. Histologically found contact between the implant and the host bone at the interface was significantly more abundant in the 200 degrees C group (avg. 12.8%) vs. the 140 degrees C (avg. 2.7%) and the untreated groups (avg. 0.6%). It was observed that the heat treatment significantly modified the biological behaviour of the implanted wood. The changes of the wood by heat treatment showed a positive outcome concerning osteoconductivity of the material.

Fabrication, chemical composition change and phase evolution of biomorphic hydroxyapatite

Biomorphous, highly porous hydroxyapatite (HA) ceramics have been prepared by a combination of a novel biotemplating process and a sol-gel method, using natural plants like cane and pine as biotemplates. A HA sol was first synthesized from triethylphosphate and calcium nitrate used as the phosphorus and calcium precursors, respectively, and infiltrated into the biotemplates, and subsequently they were sintered at elevated temperatures to obtain porous HA ceramics. The microstructural changes, phase and chemical composition evolutions during the biotemplate-to-HA conversion were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The XRD and FT-IR analysis revealed that the dominant phase of the product was HA, which contained a small amount of mixed A/B-type carbonated HA, closely resembling that of human bone apatite. Moreover, the appearance of a small amount of secondary phase CaCO(3) seemed unavoidable. The HA was not transformed to the other calcium phosphate phases up to 1400 degrees C, but it contained a trace amount of CaO when sintered at above 1100 degrees C. The possible transformation mechanism was proposed. The SEM observation and mechanical property test showed that as-produced HA ceramics retained the macro-/micro-porous structures of the biotemplates with high precision, and possessed acceptable mechanical strength, which is suggested to be potential scaffolds for bone tissue engineering.

Natural composite of wood as replacement material for ostechondral bone defects

Deciduous wood, birch, pretreated by a technique combining heat and water vapor was applied for the reconstruction of bone defects in the knee joint of rabbits. It was observed that wood showed characteristic properties to be incorporated by the host bone during observation time of 4, 8, and 20 weeks. The natural channel structure of wood served as a porous scaffold, allowing host bone growth as small islets into the wood implants. The other properties of heat-treated wood, such as bioactivity, good handling properties, and sufficient biomechanical properties, might be additional favorable factors for the application of wood as a natural composite material for bone and cartilage repair. At the interface of the surfaces of wood and living bone, bonding occurred. The Chemical Interface Model for bonding bone to wood consists of the reactive ions, such as hydroxyl groups --OH, and covalent bonding as well as hydrogen bonding, which originate from both wood and bone. The bone tissue trauma, with its reactive Ca(2+) and PO(4) (3-) ions, proteins, and collagen, available for interaction at ionic and nanolevel, are associated with the complicated chemistry in the cellular response of the early bone healing process. It was concluded that heat-treated wood acted like a porous biomaterial scaffold, allowing ongrowth and ingrowth of bone and cartilage differentiation on its surface, and demonstrating osteoconductive contact, bonding at the interface.

Toxicity studies on western juniper oil (Juniperus occidentalis) and Port-Orford-cedar oil (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) extracts utilizing local lymph node and acute dermal irritation assays

The essential oil extracts of western juniper oil (Juniperus occidentalis) and Port-Orford-cedar oil (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) were evaluated for possible dermal toxic effects on mice and rabbits. Mice were tested for their response to both extracts utilizing a local lymph node assay. Western juniper oil extract at 0.5% and 5% concentrations did not show a stimulation index (SI) greater than normal (3.0); however, a 50% concentration did show a positive response at 3.3. Port-Orford-cedar oil extract did not show a positive response at concentrations of 0.5%, 5% or 50%. An acute dermal irritation study using rabbits had a primary irritation index (PII) of 3.3 with 100% Port-Orford-cedar oil extract. This was reduced to a PII of 0.625 when diluted 1:1 with olive oil. Undiluted western juniper oil extract had a PII score of 2.7. While a 5.0% solution had a PII score of 0.3, a 0.5% solution of western juniper oil was a non-irritant. It would appear that animals bedded on wood shavings have contact with essential oils at concentrations far less than the 2% maximum by weight obtained by steam distillation extraction. These concentrations did not elicit a hypersensitivity response.