Biocompatibility evaluation of degradable PLA/Mg films for medical applications

PLA/Mg composite materials have emerged as new bioabsorbable biomaterials for osteosynthesis applications. The incorporation of Mg particles into the biodegradable polymer strengthens the control over its degradation rate as well as improves PLA hydrophilicity, promotes the bioactivity by buffering the chemical conditions, avoiding the pH decrease due to the poly-lactic degradation, and inducing osteointegration. Moreover, the Mg particles are embedded homogenously in the polymer matrix and protected by a PLA layer, as drawn from the microstructural characterization that permits to control de hydrogen release rate, so that no composition exceeds the tolerable hydrogen release amount set for the human body (2.25 ml/cm2/day). In this work cell viability was evaluated for PLA films with different Mg content prepared using colloidal processing routes.ANPCyT (PICT 2016-1424) UNLP (I221), POLYMAGIC: PCIN-2017-036, MAT2016-79869-C2-1-P (MINECO, Spain) and S2018/NMT-4411(ADDITIMAT, CM, Spain)