In vivo and in vitro considerations of corrosion testing.

In vitro experiments were conducted in which the fretting corrosion rate of stainless steel plates and screws in 0.9% saline was compared with the rate in solutions of 10% calf serum in saline. The results demonstrated a ten-fold decrease in the fretting corrosion rate with the addition of serum to saline. However, it also demonstrated that the lower concentration of nickel in the serum solutions was more biologically active than the higher concentration in saline when the solutions were used to skin test rabbits made allergic to nickel by injection.