Scaffold Chemical Model Based on Collagen—Methyl Methacrylate Graft Copolymers

Abstract

Polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) in aqueous collagen (Col) dispersion was studied in the presence of tributylborane (TBB) and p-quinone: 2,5-di-tert-butyl-p-benzoquinone (2,5-DTBQ), p-benzoquinone (BQ), duroquinone (DQ), and p-naphthoquinone (NQ). It was found that this system leads to the formation of a grafted cross-linked copolymer. The inhibitory effect of p-quinone determines the amount of unreacted monomer, homopolymer, and percentage of grafted poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). The synthesis combines two approaches to form a grafted copolymer with a cross-linked structure—“grafting to” and “grafting from”. The resulting products exhibit biodegradation under the action of enzymes, do not have toxicity, and demonstrate a stimulating effect on cell growth. At the same time, the denaturation of collagen occurring at elevated temperatures does not impair the characteristics of copolymers. These results allow us to present the research as a scaffold chemical model. Comparison of the properties of the obtained copolymers helps to determine the optimal method for the synthesis of scaffold precursors—synthesis of a collagen and poly(methyl methacrylate) copolymer at 60 °C in a 1% acetic acid dispersion of fish collagen with a mass ratio of the components collagen:MMA:TBB:2,5-DTBQ equal to 1:1:0.015:0.25.

Influences of Trypsin Pretreatment on the Structures, Composition, and Functional Characteristics of Skin Gelatin of Tilapia, Grass Carp, and Sea Perch

“…The skin gelatin of tilapia and grass carp extracted with trypsin in this study has good emulsifying properties. One possible reason is that trypsin has split the collagen into more short-chain peptides containing more low-molecular-weight fragments [ 27 , 28 ], which provide more electriferous groups at the ends of polypeptides and increase the area of the contact surface, thus improving the emulsifying properties of gelatin. Fish skin gelatin prepared with this method can be used as a foaming agent or an emulsifying agent in such application fields as food, pharmacy, and medical technology [ 29 ].…”

Production of Graft Copolymers of Cod Collagen with Butyl Acrylate and Vinyl Butyl Ether in the Presence of Triethylborane—Prospects for Use in Regenerative Medicine

“…Any collagen used in regenerative medicine is most often incorporated as a part of composite materials [2,[10][11][12][13]. Different ways to obtain three-dimensional structures using collagen/gelatin have been proposed, for example, obtaining composites based on collagen with grafted synthetic fragments modifying its three-dimensional structure [5,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. One of the methods for obtaining such copolymers is graft copolymerization, used to introduce the modifying additives [5,[14][15][16][17][18][19]26].…”

“…The use of trialkylboranes in the graft polymerization of vinyl monomers onto the surface of natural polymers [18,23,24,[27][28][29][30] is described in the literature. An important feature of organoboranes is the possibility of low-temperature polymerization, their participation in chain transfer reactions, and their ability to boride collagen, thus affecting the structure of the resulting copolymers.…”

“…In contrast to earlier studies [18,23,24,[27][28][29][30] and in order to obtain a collagen copolymer with an original structure and properties, a mixture of butyl acrylate (BA) and vinyl butyl ether (VBE) was used instead of just a single synthetic monomer. In an excess of VBE, the radical copolymerization of the BA-VBE pair produced a predominantly alternating copolymer.…”