Control of magnesium corrosion and biocompatibility with biomimetic coatings

Abstract: The use of magnesium and its alloys as biode-gradable metallic implant materials requires that their corro-sion behavior can be controlled. We tailored the Mg release kinetics and cell adhesion properties of commercially pure Mg by chemical surface treatments in simulated body fluid, in Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s cell culture medium in the presence or absence of fetal bovine serum (FBS), or in 100 % FBS. HeLa cells were cultured for 24 h on these Mg surfaces to characterize their biocompatibility. Cell density on all treated surfaces was significantly increased compared with a polished Mg surface, where almost no cells survived. This low biocompatibility of pure Mg was not caused by the high Mg ion release with concentrations of up to 300 mg/L in the cell culture medium after 24 h, as cells grown on a glass substrate showed no adverse reactions to high Mg ion concentrations. Rather, the most critical factor for cell adhe-sion was a sufficiently reduced initial dissolution rate of the surface. A comparison among all surface treatments showed that an incubation of the Mg samples in cell culture me-dium gave the lowest dissolution rate and resulted in the best cell adhesion and spreading behavior. VC 2010 Wiley Peri