Mg-based absorbable membrane for guided bone regeneration (GBR): a pilot study

A novel calcium-phosphate (Ca–P)-coated magnesium (Mg) membrane used for guided bone regeneration (GBR) was studied. The microstructural characterization, electrochemical test, immersion test, fluorescence labeling analysis and histopathological evaluation were carried out. The results showed that Ca–P coating could obviously improve the corrosion resistance of the pure Mg membrane. The in vivo results showed that Mg membrane coated with Ca–P would take 8 weeks to be completely absorbed. However, Mg membrane was completely absorbed within 1 week. Histopathological evaluation showed that the Ca–P-coated Mg membranes were significantly better than Ti membranes at the early implantation time (4 weeks), and with the time prolonging, the performance of the coated Mg membrane was not as good as pure Ti membranes (but still better than blank group) at 8 and 12 weeks. The coated biodegradable Mg membrane had a good promising application in GBR. But further studies have to be done to further decrease the degradation rate of pure Mg membrane.