Enzymatic Degradation of Star Poly(ε-Caprolactone) with Different Central Units

Abstract

Four-arm star poly(ε-caprolactone) with a central poly(ethylene glycol) PEG unit bridged with 2,2-bis(methyl) propionic acid, (PCL)2-b-PEG-b-(PCL)2, and six-arm star PCL homopolymer with a central dipentaerythritol units were hydrolysed using a lipase from Pseudomonas cepacia and the Thermobifida cellulosilytica cutinase Thc_Cut1. For comparative analysis, Y-shaped copolymers containing methylated PEG bridged with bisMPA, MePEG-(PCL)2, and linear triblock copolymers PCL-b-PEG-b-PCL were also subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis. The hydrophilic nature of the polymers was determined using contact angle analysis, showing that a higher PEG content exhibited a lower contact angle and higher surface wettability. Enzymatic hydrolysis was monitored by % mass loss, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). A higher rate of mass loss was found for lipase catalysed hydrolysis of those polymers with the highest PEG content, leading to significant surface erosion and increase in crystallinity within the first two days. Liquid chromatography (LC) and size exclusion chromatography (SEC) of samples incubated with the cutinase showed a significant decrease in molecular weight, increase in dispersity, and release of ε-CL monomer units after 6 h of incubation.

PDMAEMA/Polyester Miktopolymers: Synthesis via In-Out Approach, Physicochemical Characterization and Enzymatic Degradation

“…where ∆H m is the enthalpy of melting and ∆H m • is the enthalpy of melting of the 100% crystalline polymer (139 J/g) [24,25].…”

“…Potassium phosphate buffer (0.2 M) and enzymes such as PS lipase and cutiase from Thermobifida cellulosilytica were used for the degradation. Out of all polymers, the Y-shaped miktopolymer showed the fastest rate of enzymatic degradation, using both cutinase and lipase enzymes [ 24 ].…”

“Fishing and Hunting”—Selective Immobilization of a Recombinant Phenylalanine Ammonia-Lyase from Fermentation Media

“…Most of these reactions have industrial importance not only in pharmaceutical field [3,40] but in food [41,42,43,44,45] and fine chemical industries [46,47,48] or in modern analytics and diagnostic technologies as well [43,49,50,51,52,53]. Furthermore, biocatalysis has gained more and more importance in fuel industry regarding biodiesel production with lipases [54,55], in polymer industry to mediate biocatalyzed polymerizations [56,57,58] or in environmental processes to degrade various polymers or biopolymers by hydrolysis [59,60,61].…”

Synthesis of Thermo-Responsive Block-Graft Copolymer Based on PCL and PEG Analogs, and Preparation of Hydrogel via Click Chemistry

“…It is well known that polyethyleneglycol (PEG) and poly ( ε -caprolactone) (PCL) are widely used in the biomedicine field because of the superior properties that nontoxic, nonimmune, and biodegradable [22,23,24,25,26,27,28]. PCL with higher initial strength is used as a toughening biomaterial in bone repair or tissue engineering due to its slow degradation rate and mechanical properties.…”