Stents are commonly used in medicine to correct weakened arterial walls and atherosclerosis. Once the stent is implanted, it remains in the artery permanently, which might be correlated with the complications of stenting procedure [1,2]. Therefore, biodegradable stents, which will disappear after healing the diseased artery, attract increasing attention.
Magnesium is a potential material for a biodegradable stent due to its mechanical properties and biocompatibility. However, pure magnesium degrades faster than the arterial remodeling which requires a period of 6 months. Specifically, magnesium disappears in the body in less than 3 months. Magnesium alloy could reduce the degradation rate. Alloys that contain rare earth metals such as Mg-Al-RE and Mg-Y-Nd-Zr polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) alloys have been considered in stent applications [2]. However, the documented degradation studies were generally conducted without considering prior loading history [2,3]. The degradation, also referred to as...
