Poly dendrimers biocompatibility

Luo, D. Haverstick, K. Belcheva, N. Han, E. Saltzman, W.M. Poly(ethylene glycol)-conjugated PAMAM dendrimer for biocompatible, high-efficiency DNA delivery. Macromolecules 2002, 35, 3456-3462. 

Dendrimers such as poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) and poly(propylenimine) (PPI) have also been studied for gene delivery in vitro and in vivo due to their high transfection efficiency. However, the toxicity of the dendrimers is of major concern for their medical use. Generally, in vivo toxicity of dendrimers is related to various factors, including their chemical structure, surface charge, generation and the dose of dendrimer used. Surface modification with PEG or replacement with low generation dendrimers have been reported to be able to improve the biocompatibility of these biomaterials. ... 

Kono et al. reported improvement of water-solubility of fullerene, C o by using PAMAM dendrimer modified with both poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and (3-cyclodextrin (CD) [28]. The authors believed that the presence of CD at the periphery of dendrimer can increase the formation of complex with fullerene, while PEG moiety can promote water-solubility and biocompatibility. The selection of p-cyclodextrin was based on its low affinity for interaction with PEG. The synthetic procedure for preparation of PEG/CD-modified dendrimer and encapsulation of fullerene is depicted in Fig. 6.9. 

In order to produce honeycomb patterned PLA films, additives such as organic surfactants or functional nanoparticles must be added in order to overcome the effects of the high hydrophobicity of PLA. One such example is the use of dendritic amphiphilic block copolymers of poly(L-lysine) and PLLA, synthesised by metal-free ring-opening polymerisation. Culture of the human epithelial HeLa cell line showed a distinct increase in cell density after 72 h of culture, indicating that honeycomb patterned polymers produced from such dendrimers are indeed biocompatible. ... 

---