Biodegradation of poly(ester-ether-ester) block copolymers in a cellular environment in vitro

By HPLC analysis, the degradation products of tri-block poly(ester-ether-ester) copolymers were identified and their amount measured. The decrease of copolymer molecular mass after degradation was also evaluated by means of intrinsic viscosity measurements. From the viscosity measurements it is conc...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of materials science. Materials in medicine 1994-12, Vol.5 (12), p.891-895
Main Authors: Sbarbati Del Guerra, R, Cristallini, C, Rizzi, N, Barsacchi, R, Guerra, G D, Tricoli, M, Cerrai, P
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:By HPLC analysis, the degradation products of tri-block poly(ester-ether-ester) copolymers were identified and their amount measured. The decrease of copolymer molecular mass after degradation was also evaluated by means of intrinsic viscosity measurements. From the viscosity measurements it is concluded that the higher the hydrophilicity of the material, the faster the rate of decrease of its intrinsic viscosity with time. The HPLC results indicate that the amount of the degradation products is a function of both the hydrophilicity of the molecule and the lateral block length. When the fibroblast cell populations were present in the same wells together with the biodegradable copolymers, signs of cellular metabolism of the degraded monomers were detected.
ISSN:0957-4530
DOI:10.1007/BF01172032