In vitro corrosion and cytocompatibility studies of hot press sintered magnesium-bioactive glass composite

In this present work, bioactive glass (BG) reinforced magnesium (Mg) Mg/BG composites were prepared using hot press sintering and the effects of BG content on composite hardness, degradation behaviour and cytocompatibility were studied. Simultaneous increase in temperature and applied pressure in hot press sintering resulted in a unique Mg-BG microstructure where BG partially coated Mg particles. The result was an 6.8 times increase in corrosion resistance of Mg-10 wt% BG compared to pure Mg. The high corrosion resistance of Mg-10 wt%BG had also reduced pH rise of the degradation media and hydrogen evolution, a significant concern for Mg based degradable biomaterials. Degradation behaviour of Mg-BG composites were also studied using micro-CT (µ-CT) which showed lowest porosity increase for Mg-10BG after immersion in PBS for 168 h. In vitro cytocompatibility studies were performed, by extract assay method, using MG-63 cells. The Live/Dead imaging and alamar blue assay indicated that Mg-10BG composites had higher cell viability and proliferation compared to other composites. The present result indicates that in situ BG coating, as prepared by hot press sintering, is an efficient way to increase corrosion resistance and cytocompatibility of Mg based biomaterials.