There is an increasing interest in the development of magnesium alloys both for industrial and biomedical applications. Industrial interest in magnesium alloys is based on strong demand of weight reduction of transportation vehicles for better fuel efficiency, so higher strength, and better ductility and corrosion resistance are required. Nevertheless, biomedical magnesium alloys require appropriate mechanical properties, suitable degradation rate in physiological environment, and what is most important, biosafety to human body. Rather than simply apply commercial magnesium alloys to biomedical field, new alloys should be designed from the point of view of nutriology and toxicology. This article provides a review of state-of-the-art of magnesium alloy implants and devices for orthopedic, cardiovascular and tissue engineering applications. Advances in new alloy design, novel structure design and surface modification are overviewed. The factors that influence the corrosion behavior of magnesium alloys are discussed and the strategy in the future development of biomedical magnesium alloys is proposed.
AZ31 magnesium alloy fibers reinforced poly（lactic-co-glycolic acid） （PLGA） composites were prepared and their mechanical property, immersion corrosion behavior and biocompatibility were studied. The tensile test showed that with the addition of AZ31 fibers, the composites had a significant increment in tensile strength and elongation. For the direct cell attachment test, all the cells showed a healthy morphology and spread well on the experimental sample surfaces. The immersion results indicated that pH values of the immersion medium increased with increasing AZ31 fiber contents. All the in vitro experimental results indicated that this new kind of magnesium alloy fibers reinforced PLGA composites show a potential for future biomedical applications.
In this work, three widely used commercial Zn alloys （ZA4-1, ZA4-3, ZA6-1 ） were purchased and pre- pared by hot extrusion at 200℃. The microstructure, mechanical properties, corrosion behaviors, biocompatibility and hemocompatibility of Zn alloys were studied with pure Zn as control, Commercial Zn alloys demonstrated increased strength and superb elongation compared with pure Zn. Accelerated corrosion rates and uniform corrosion morphologies were observed in terms of commercial Zn alloys due to galvanic effects between Zn matrix and α-Al phases. 100% extracts of ZA4-1 and ZA6-1 alloys showed mild cytotoxicity while 50% extracts of all samples displayed good biocompatibility. Retardant cell cycle and inhibited stress fibers expression were observed induced by high concentration of Zn^2＋ releasing during corrosion. The hemolysis ratios of Zn alloys were lower than 1% while the adhered platelets showed slightly activated morphologies. In general, commercial Zn alloys possess promising mechanical properties, appropriate corrosion rates, significantly improved biocompatibility and good hemocompatibility in comparison to pure Zn. It is feasible to develop biodegradable metals based on commercial Zn alloys.
Five pure metals including Fe, Mn, Mg, Zn and W have been investigated on their corrosion behavior and in vitro biocompatibility by electrochemical measurement, static immersion test, contact angle measurement, cytotoxicity and hemocompatibility tests. It is found that the sequence of corrosion rate of five metals in Hank＇s solution from high to low is： Mg 〉 Fe 〉 Zn 〉 Mn 〉 W. Fe, Mg and W show no cytotoxicity to L929 and ECV304 cells, Mn induces significant cytotoxicity to both L929 and ECV304 cells, and Zn has almost no inhibition effect on the metabolic activities of ECV304 while largely reduces the cell viability of L929 cells. The hemolysis percentage of five pure metals is lower than 5% except for Mg and platelets adhered on Zn has been activated and pseudopodia-like structures can be observed while platelets on the other four metals keep normal.
