Degradation of Mg-Zn-Y-Nd alloy intestinal stent and its effect on the growth of intestinal endothelial tissue in rabbit model

Biodegradable magnesium alloys have excellent properties with respect to biodegradability, biocompatibility, and biomechanics, which may indicate a possibility of its application in intestinal stents. Investigation of Mg-Zn-Y-Nd alloy's application in intestinal stents has been performed. This study aims to investigate the degradation behavior of Mg-Zn-Y-Nd alloy intestinal stents coated with poly(L-lactide)/paclitaxel in the intestinal environment and its biocompatibility with intestinal tissue. In this paper, Mg-Zn-Y-Nd alloy's corrosion properties were evaluated by the immersion test in human feces, SEM and XRD, and animal tests. In vitro results showed that when the Mg-Zn-Y-Nd alloy was immersed in human feces for two weeks, its corrosion resistance could be improved by micro arc oxidation (MAO) and poly-l-lactide (PLLA) dual coating. Additionally, this result was also confirmed in vivo experiments by rabbit model. And animal tests also demonstrated that the Mg-Zn-Y-Nd alloy with MAO/PLLA/paclitaxel dual coating drug-eluting stents could inhibit the proliferation of local intestinal tissue around the stents. However, in vivo studies illustrated that the intestinal stents gradually degraded in rabbit model within 12 days. Considering the degradation rate of the stent was faster than expected in rabbits, the support performance of the scaffold requires further improvement.