In vitro degradation, biocompatibility and antibacterial properties of pure zinc: assessing the potential of Zn as a guided bone regeneration membrane

Abstract

Membrane exposure is a common complication after the guided bone regeneration (GBR) procedure and has a detrimental influence on the bone regeneration outcomes, while the commercially available GBR membranes show limited exposure tolerance. Recently, zinc (Zn) has been suggested as a promising material to be used as a barrier membrane in GBR therapy for bone augmentation. In this study, the degradation behavior in artificial saliva solution, cytotoxicity and antibacterial activity of pure Zn were investigated to explore its degradation and associated biocompatibility in the case of premature membrane exposure. The results indicated that the degradation rate of Zn in artificial saliva solution was about 31.42 μm year⁻¹ after 28 days of immersion. The corrosion products on the Zn surface were mainly composed of Zn₃(PO₄)₂, Ca₃(PO₄)₂, CaHPO₄, Zn₅(CO₃)₂(OH)₆ and ZnO. Besides, Zn presented an acceptable in vitro HGF cytocompatibility and a high antibacterial activity against Porphyromonas gingivalis. The preliminary results demonstrate that pure Zn exhibits appropriate degradation behavior, adequate cell compatibility and favorable antibacterial properties in the oral environment and is thus believed to sustain profitable function when membrane exposure occurs. The results provided new insights for understanding the exposure tolerance of Zn based membranes and are beneficial to their clinical applications.