Can our bones be substituted for solid metal ones?

[Theranged]

Or would our bodies reject them?

[askyourgran]

I have a hip replacement which is metal and there are several joints that can be replaced with metal or ceramic, I'm told it will last me about 15 - 20 years.

[rov1200]

There are millions of people walking round the country with metal fillings in their teeth

[Theranged]

Thanks for your answers guys. Ayg Im aware of the metal hip but could the surgeons have made the whole femur tibula and fibula out of metal?
Rov teeth are calcified multiple tissues of varying density and hardness.
Bone is different.

[Whickerman]

Bizarrely, I held a metal replacement knee joint in my hand only yesterday.

[boxtops]

I think the answer may be yes. I recall when the late Barry Sheene has serious leg injuries following a motorbike accident, the whole of his leg bone was pinned with metal plates - not quite the same thing but I expect it can be done.

[wildwood]

The biggest problem would be how to make the muscles stick to the 'bone'. I am also pretty sure that bones transport essential stuff along limbs and such.

[sandyRoe]

Doesn't bone marrow help us fight infections? If enough of the bones were removed we might die of the common cold.

[LazyGun]

@TheRanged Only if the metal was adamanttium would this work for the whole skeleton, and you need a mutant with extraordinary regenerative powers for this to work.

We routinely perform the substitution of bones for solid metal ones now, at least in part, with Hip Replacements. And we routinely implant metal with heart pacemakers.

Do you mean whole skeleton, or just the odd bone here and there as the whimsy takes us?

More seriously - A significant proportion of the public have hypersensitivity to chromium, nickel and cobalt. GvH rejection due to immunological rejection has been conjectured, but not yet clinically proven. Metal sensitivity, and delayed onset of dermatitis, vasculitis and urticaria have been demonstrated to occur and are linked to implant degradation products, but not to cause failure of the implant.

There are many other considerations to take into account when contemplating the replacement of bone with metal.Mechanical considerations, for instance.Bone is strong, rigid and yet pretty light for its size - replacing such material with metal would significantly change the stress on and amount of work carried out by muscles and tendons, and not in a good way. Bone also is a reservoir for bone marrow, which in turn acts as repository for all sorts of good things, such as blood replenishment, stem cell generation, which aids in cell repair, and our bodily defences, with a pool of cells involved in our immunological system.
Replacing such reservoirs with solid metal would again be a pretty bad idea.

[Theranged]

Well first of all thanks all for your answers.
Lol@lazygun I got the Admantium/Wolverine's reference as I used to read X-men comics.

[tamborine]

avoid magnets