A chemical deposition route was employed to prepare bioactive β-TCP coatings on porous magnesium scaffold surfaces. The phase identification and surface morphology of the specimens were studied by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope, respectively. The cytocompatibility of treated porous magnesium scaffolds was studied in the present paper by using human osteoblast-like UMR106 cells. It was found that the cytotoxicity was in grade 1, indicating cytotoxicity free and without damage to DNA and no change to the cell cycle for the extracted liquid of treated magnesium. All the experimental results indicate that the treated porous magnesium has a good cytocompatibility and potential to be a new type of bone tissue engineering scaffolds