A Tantalum Wire-reinforced Porous Magnesium Scaffold for Bone Repair
Abstract
Porous magnesium (P-Mg) is widely applied as an implant material in bone repair, and in clinical application its mechanical and biological properties are the focus of concern. In this work, a porous magnesium reinforced by tantalum wires (P-MT) was successfully fabricated via the infiltration casting technology, and the relevant mechanical and biological properties were systematacially investigated. The prepared P-MT was composed of Mg matrix, uniformly embedded tantalum (Ta) wires, and isodiametric, interconnected holes. Both the compressive yield strength and elastic modulus of the P-MT were remarkably higher than those of the conventional P-Mg, owing to the deformation-resistance enhancement and supporting effect from the hard Ta wires within the former configuration. With increasing the porosity of the P-MT from 30% to 50%, the yield strength gradually decreased from 20.2 MPa to 10.8 MPa and likewise the elastic modulus from 3.5 GPa to 1.5 GPa. In Hank’s solution, the P-MT exhibited an initially high and subsequently low degradation rate compared with of the P-Mg. In vivo evaluations revealed that the introduced Ta wires can provide stable attachment sites for new bones ingrowth into the P-MT scaffolds, thereby gaining superior osseointegration. The P-MT material has a promising application in bone repair engineering.