In vivo study of nanostructured akermanite/PEO coating on biodegradable magnesium alloy for biomedical applications

The major issue for biodegradable magnesium alloys is the fast degradation and release of hydrogen gas. In this article, we aim to overcome these disadvantages by using a surface modified magnesium implant. We have recently coated AZ91 magnesium implants by akermanite (Ca2 MgSi2 O7 ) through the combined electrophoretic deposition (EPD) and plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) methods. In this work, we performed the in vitro and in vivo examinations of these coated implants using L-929 cell line and rabbit animal model. The in vitro study confirmed the higher cytocompatibility of the coated implants compare to the uncoated ones. For the in vivo experiment, the rod samples were implanted into the greater trochanter of rabbits and monitored for two months. The results indicated a noticeable biocompatibility improvement of the coated implants which includes slower implant weight loss, reduction in Mg ion released from the coated samples in the blood plasma, lower release of hydrogen bubbles, increase in the amount of bone formation and ultimately lower bone inflammation after the surgery according to the histological images. Our data exemplifies that the proper surface treatment of the magnesium implants can improve their biocompatibility under physiological conditions to make them applicable in clinical uses. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 103A: 1798-1808, 2015.