Redox Reducible and Hydrolytically Degradable PEG–PLA Elastomers as Biomaterial for Temporary Drug‐Eluting Medical Devices

Abstract

With the aim to develop biomaterials for temporary medical devices, a series of novel reducible and/or degradable elastomers has been prepared from PLA-b-PEG-b-PLA copolymers photo-crosslinked with diallyl sulfide or pentaerythritol tetrakis(3-mercaptopropionate). Thermal and mechanical properties, including elastic limit and Young modulus, are assessed. Degradation is then evaluated under standard hydrolytic conditions. Reducibility of a selected elastomer is then illustrated using 2-mercaptoethanol or glutathione as reducing agents. The redox-sensitivity of the selected elastomer and the possibility to modulate the degradability are shown. Considering drug-eluting elastomeric devices applications, anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen loading is illustrated with the two simplest elastomer formulations. A rapid or slow linear release is observed as a function of the low or high molecular weight of the triblock pre-polymers. Finally, the cytocompatibility of the degradable elastomers is assessed with regard to their potential to favor or inhibit L929 murine fibroblasts proliferation as a function of the hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity of the triblock copolymers.

A Review on the Advances of Biocompatible Materials and Their Processing Via Additive Manufacturing for Tissue Engineering Applications

“…It is a hydrophobic material with a relatively long degradation period [41] . Due to its mechanical properties, various applications for this material have been explored, ranging from tendon regeneration [41][42] to the design of temporary implants that release drugs at a given place, while degrading [43] .…”

Combination of in vitro thermally-accelerated ageing and Fourier-Transform Infrared spectroscopy to predict scaffold lifetime

“…In particular, cross-linked elastomers tend to degrade advantageously with a constant threedimensional structure, due to the combination of bulk and surface erosion, and exhibit a lowest hydrolytic degradation than the linear counterpart due to a more stable molecular structure [14,15].…”