Enzymatic degradation natural polymers

It was reported that some synthetic polymers are biocompatible and biodegradable, thus can be used as safe biomaterials in biomedical applications. Synthetic polymers are degraded hydrolytically unlike enzymatically degraded natural polymers. 

Polysaccharides are hydrophilic natural polymers that can be degraded enzymatically. Block copolymers containing polysaccharide as a block were reviewed recently... 

In Chapters 15 and 16 the modification and degradation of respectively synthetic (e.g. PET, polyamides) and natural polymers (e.g. polysaccharides) are reviewed. It becomes obvious that biocatalytic modifications can offer advantages over chemical modifications therefore building a bridge between traditional polymerization techniques and enzymatic polymerizations. 

Broad interest in the possible biodegradation of synthetic polymers has developed only in recent years and primarily in response to the growing problem of the waste disposal of plastics. Essentially all biopolymers are susceptible to enzymatic degradation because the enzymatic polymerization reactions responsible for their synthesis in nature have closely related counterparts in nature for their enzymatic depolymerization what nature creates, nature can destroy . If it were not so, polymers could not be utilized as reserve materials and waste... 

S5mthetic polymers can be designed to degrade at a controllable rate rather than the variable rate found with the typically enzymatic degradation of natural polymers. 

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