In vitro and in vivo studies on biodegradable magnesium alloy

The microstructure, mechanical property, electrochemical behavior and biocompatibility of magnesium alloy (BioDe MSM™) were studied in the present work. The experimental results demonstrated that grain refining induced by extrusion improves the alloy strength significantly from 162 MPa for the as-cast alloy to 241 MPa for the as-extruded one. The anticorrosion properties of the as-extruded alloy also increased. Furthermore, the hemolysis ratio was decreased from 4.7% for the as-cast alloy to 2.9% for the as-extruded one, both below 5%. BioDe MSM™ alloy shows good biocompatibility after being implanted into the dorsal muscle and the femoral shaft of the New Zealand rabbit, respectively, and there are no abnormalities after short-term implantation. In vivo observation indicated that the corrosion rate of this alloy varies with different implantation positions, with higher degradation rate in the femur than in the muscle.