Miscellaneous biomedical applications

A great number of experimental and theoretical studies have been published concerning the surface modification of biomedical devices by block copolymers in order to promote-spe-cific characteristics, for example wetting, improved biocompatibility, etc. For the surface modification by block and graft copolymers, it is important to determine not only the conformation and the surfaces density of the adsorbed chains in form of a brush, but also the kinetics of this phenomenon which in fact will depend on the unimer-micelle equilibrium. 

The theories and the experimental aspects concerning self-assembly of block copolymers at surfaces have been reviewed by TirreU [326] andbyHamley [ 11 ]. Hamley has given in addition an overview on the various morphologies of thin block copolymer films confined on a surface. 

For biomedical applications, which will only be considered in this review, it could be mentioned that Kataoka and co-workers [327] prepared non-fouling surfaces by coating them with core-polymerized PEG-PLA block copolymer micelles having an aldehyde-ended PEG shell. 

Hydrophilization of surfaces with PS-PEO graft copolymers and the chain conformation in the adsorbed layer has been studied in detail by Yokoyama et al. [328]. 

The problem of controlled drug release from surface coated stents with PMMA-PIB-PMMA and PHEMA-PIB-PHEMA triblock copolymers was recently approached by Cho etal. [329]. Drug eluting stents are in fact one of the most recent advances in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. 

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Arasabenzene, with chromium, 5, 339 Arcyriacyanin A, via Heck couplings, 11, 320 Arduengo-type carbenes with titanium(IV), 4, 366 with vanadium, 5, 10 (Arene(chromium carbonyls analytical applications, 5, 261 benzyl cation stabilization, 5, 245 biomedical applications, 5, 260 chiral, as asymmetric catalysis ligands, 5, 241 chromatographic separation, 5, 239 cine and tele nucleophilic substitutions, 5, 236 kinetic and mechanistic studies, 5, 257 liquid crystalline behaviour, 5, 262 lithiations and electrophile reactions, 5, 236 as main polymer chain unit, 5, 251 mass spectroscopic studies, 5, 256 miscellaneous compounds, 5, 258 NMR studies, 5, 255 palladium coupling, 5, 239 polymer-bound complexes, 5, 250 spectroscopic studies, 5, 256 X-ray data analysis, 5, 257... 

Another topic that was exhaustively investigated during the last few years was the development of biorenewable polymers-based hydrogels. They have attracted great interest for miscellaneous applications including biomedical, toxic ion removal, and water purification (Thakur and Thakur 2014a, b, c). 

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