Biodegradable poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) hydrogels for engineered tissue constructs were developed using atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), a degradable crosslinker and a macroinitiator. Hydrogels are appropriate materials for tissue engineering scaffolds due to their tissue-like mechanical compliance and mass transfer properties. However, many hydrogels that have seen wide application in medicine are not biodegradable or cannot be easily cleared from the body. Poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA) was selected for the scaffold material due to its reasonable mechanical strength, elasticity, long history of successful use in medicine and because it can be easily fabricated into numerous configurations. pHEMA was studied at various molecular weights between 2 kDa and 50 kDa. The molecular weight range suitable for renal clearance was an important factor in the experimental design. The fabricated hydrogels contain oligomeric blocks of polycaprolactone (PCL), a hydrolytically and enzymatically degradable polymer, as a crosslinking agent. In addition a degradable macroinitiator also containing oligomeric PCL was used to initiate the ATRP. The chain length, crosslink density, and polymerization solvent were found to greatly affect the mechanical properties of the pHEMA hydrogels. Degradation of the pHEMA hydrogels was characterized using 0.007 M NaOH, lipase solutions and phosphate buffered saline. Mass loss, swelling ratio and tensile modulus were evaluated. Degradation products from the sodium hydroxide were measured using gel permeation chromatography (GPC) to verify the polymer lengths and polydispersity. Erosion was only observed in the sodium hydroxide and lipase solutions. However, swelling ratio and tensile modulus indicate bulk degradation in all PCL containing samples. Degradable hydrogels in enzymatic solutions showed 30% mass loss in 16 weeks. Initial cell toxicity studies indicate no adverse cellular response to the hydrogels or their degradation products. These hydrogels have appropriate mechanical properties, a tunable degradation rate, and are composed of materials currently in FDA approved devices. Thus the degradable pHEMA developed in this study has considerable potential as a scaffold for tissue engineering in cardiac and other applications.

In the presence of certain ligands and solvents, nickel-and cobalt-mediated living polymerizations of R-amino acid-N-carboxyanhydrides (NCAs) produce polymers with molecular weights several times greater than predicted by initial molar ratios of monomer to initiator. Such molecular weight inflation could result either from competitive formation of catalytic intermediates of reduced activity or from incomplete formation of a single catalytically active species. Evidence is presented here supporting the latter possibility. Specifically, evidence is given that the concentration of the key amido-amidate metallacyclic active species is reduced in situ by (1) complexation of metal(0) preinitiator by CO liberated upon addition of an NCA monomer to another molecule of preinitiator, (2) incomplete ring contraction of a six-membered amido-alkylmetallacyclic intermediate due to inefficient proton migration, and (3) dimerization of the amido-amidate active species to give catalytically inactive complexes.

Systemic heparinization, used during haemodialysis to prevent blood clotting on the extracorporeal circuit, leads to a high incidence of hemorrhagic complications. The adverse reactions associated with heparin neutralization using protamine sulphate justify the development of an alternative system for blood deheparinization. The main objective of this work is to design nanostructured surfaces with the capacity to bind heparin from blood in a selective way. A heparin-binding polypeptide, composed of L-lysine and L-leucine (pKL), was synthesized and immobilized, in different concentrations, onto self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) terminated with tetra(ethylene-glycol) (EG4 SAMs). Immobilization was performed using a fixed concentration of pKL after surface activation to different degrees using a range of CDI (N,N'-carbonyldiimidazole) concentrations. Results demonstrated that the presence of pKL increases heparin adsorption to EG4-SAMs, independently of the pKL concentration and the way of immobilization (adsorption or covalent bound). Selectivity towards heparin was successfully achieved on SAMs with low concentrations of immobilized pKL (9-17% of pKL). Surfaces were characterized using ellipsometry, contact angle measurements, Fourier transform infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRAS), atomic force microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Heparin adsorption was assessed using IRAS and N-sulphonate-(35)S-heparin. Therefore, this study could give a good contribution for the design of blood deheparinization devices.

The use of electrophiles (isocyanates, isothiocyanates, acid chlorides) to cap the N-terminal ends of polypeptides and the use of isocyanates to prepare poly(γ-benzyl-L-glutamate)-b-(nonpeptide polymer) block copolymers are described. This chemistry was also used to prepare poly(ethylene glycol)where polymer ) polyoctenamer, poly(ethylene glycol), or poly(dimethylsiloxane). These R,ω-diamino-terminated polymers (polymer) were used to prepare difunctional macroinitiators for the living polymerization of γ-benzyl-L-glutamic acid-N-carboxyanhydride (Glu NCA) to form triblock copolymers that were subsequently capped with isocyanate terminated poly(ethylene glycol) to give the pentablock copolymers. These methods allow the facile functionalization of the N-terminal ends of polypeptides from NCA polymerizations. They also were shown to allow the controlled preparation of "rod-coil" polypeptide-(nonpeptide polymer) multiblock architectures with good control over the chain lengths of the domains and without formation of homopolypeptide contaminants.