In vitro and in vivo studies on as- extruded Mg-5.25 wt.% Zn-0.6wt.% Ca alloy as biodegradable metal

Magnesium alloys have shown prospective applications as a new biodegradable metal within bone. To garantee the longterm biocompatibility, a Mg-Zn-Ca alloy, composing of essential elements for human, was prepared and its feasibility for orthopedic applications was investigated. The in vitro and in vivo corrosion of Mg-Zn-Ca alloy as well as the biocompatibility were studied. The in vitro corrosion tests in five kinds of physiological solutions showed that the corrosion rates and corrosion morphologies of the alloy were strongly influenced by the solution used. The addition of serum in Hank's and MEM significantly slowed down the corrosion rate and improved the corrosion uniformity of the alloy. The corrosion rate decreased with increasing serum concentration. The alloy showed the slowest corrosion rate as well as homogeneous corrosion morphology in MEM+10% FBS. Both the indirect and direct cell experiments indicated good cytocompatibility of the extruded Mg-Zn-Ca alloy. In vivo, we observed a gradual degradation process from the surface of extruded Mg-Zn-Ca alloy and only 40% in volume of implant was left after 4 weeks implantation in medullary cavities of mice. The micro-CT and histological analyses revealed its good biocompatibility with peri-implant new bone formation and increasing cortical bone thickness with increasing implantation period. This study showed that the extruded MgZn-Ca alloy provided sufficient biocompatibility for orthopedic application, though the in vivo corrosion rate should be further reduced for clinical use.