Propylene Fumarate Lactic Acid Copolymer

Scaffolds with intrinsically interconnected porous structures are highly desirable in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Three-dimensional polymer scaffolds with highly interconnected porous structures could be fabricated by thermally induced phase separation using novel synthesized biodegradable poly(propylene fumarate)-co-poly(/-lactic acid) in a dioxane/water binary system (18). 

Porous scaffolds could be achieved by optimizing the conditions to get interconnected porous structures. The effect of phase separation parameters on scaffold morphology was investigated, including polymer concentration, quenching time, the ratio of dioxane to water, and the freeze temperature. 

Interesting pore morphologies were created by adjustment of the processing parameters, e.g., a flower-shaped, a spheruHte-like, and a bead-Hke morphology. The change of the phase separation conditions also resulted in remarkable differences in porosities of the scaffold and their thermal properties. 

Scaffolds with various mechanical strength, degradation rates, and protein adsorption capabilities could be fabricated using the phase separation method (18). 

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Poly(a-hydroxy acids), poly(glycolic acid), poly(lactic acid), and their copolymers Perhaps the most heavily researched types of synthetic biopolymers are PLA, PGA, their copolymers PLGA, PCL, poly(propylene fumarate) (PPF), and PHB (Seal et al., 2001). The poly(a-hydroxy acids), including PLA and PGA are broken down to their monomeric units lactic acid and glycolic acid through hydrolysis of the ester bonds in their backbones. These breakdown products are then simply cleared by natural metabolic pathways. To maintain the hydrolytic stability of the ester bond as well... 

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