Magnesium-Based Biodegradable Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Regeneration

Bone, one of the biggest tissues in our body, is complex and can regenerate itself when damaged. However, when the defects and traumas are of critical size, there is a lack of nutrients or mechanical impairment, which can avoid natural healing, leading to non-union fractures or atypical consolidation. For these reasons, biomaterials have been used to produce porous architectures, called scaffolds, with interconnectivity between pores, allowing the proliferation and adhesion of cells for the formation of new tissue and allowing bone recovery. Magnesium (Mg) appeared as a promising biomaterial for use in these situations, since it has good mechanical properties, similar to natural bone, and is biodegradable/bioresorbable. Thus, the main objective of this work was to produce biodegradable Mg-based scaffolds through three-dimensional (3D) printing (FDM) to be used in bone tissue regeneration. A comparison between two forms, oxide and sulphate, and two concentrations (5 and 15%) was used to understand which presents the most appropriate mechanical behaviour for in vivo implantation. Considering the compressive mechanical properties, results proved that 5% of Mg content present the highest compressive Young’s modulus in both forms.