Functionalized polyesters biocompatibility

In addition to the release of acidic degradation products, another deficiency of polyesters used in tissue engineering is their lack of functional groups. To improve biocompatibility of PLLA and PGA, some researchers have processed these polyesters with amino acids such as glycine and lysine. - ... 

Biodegradable or bioabsorbable polyesters including PLAs can be applied as biomedical materials [41]. Table 8.11 [4] shows the functions and purposes of bioabsorbable polymers. Bioabsorbable biomedical materials should be nontoxic, effective, sterilizable and biocompatible. In addition, bioabsorbable biomedical materials should have the appropriate degradation rate required for each application (Figure 8.27 [13]). 

Polyester is a group of polymers that contain the ester functional group in their chain. Esters are chemical compounds derived from a carboxyUc acid and a hydroxyl compound, nsnally an alcohol. Most esters are considered biocompatible since they are endogenous to the human metaboUsm and able to break down to natural metabohc products by simple hydrolysis. Elastomers composed of aliphatic polyester chains cross-linked with each other by ester bonds, snch as poly(diol citrates) and poly(glyc-erol sebacate) (PGS), have received mnch attention because they are soft, elastic, and biocompatible [26,27]. Yang et al. synthesized the first citrate-based biodegradable elastomer (CABE), poly(diol citrates), in 2004 nsing a convenient and cost-effective polycondensation reaction [26,28]. 

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