Delignified Wood-Based Anisotropic Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering

Wood exhibits high anisotropy and is mainly composed of highly biocompatible cellulose. This work explores the potential of delignified wood to serve as anisotropic scaffolds for regenerative medicine. Samples of cedar and cypress wood were treated via two-step delignification (alcoholysis and Wise method) to remove lignin while maintaining their anisotropic structures. The lignin removal was confirmed by the whitening of the samples. The chemical structures of the samples measured using attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed a significant decrease in lignin-related peaks. Mouse-derived osteoblast-like cells (MC3T3-E1) were cultured on the samples. Fluorescence microscopy images showed that the MC3T3-E1 cells were elongated and aligned along the longitudinal axis of the wood lumina. Thus, the delignified wood architecture effectively guides the MC3T3-E1 cell orientation. These observations suggest that delignified wood skeletons can be used as anisotropic scaffolds in tissue engineering.