Studies for biomedical applications

From 1970, amino acids-based homo- and copolymers were studied for biomedical applications the idea was quite intuitive, because proteins are made of amino acids. However, initial studies showed that most poly(amino acids) could not be employed for biomedical applications because of immunogenicity problems and poor mechanical properties. Only a small number of poly(y-substituted glutamates) possess adequate characteristics to be interesting. In order to improve mechanical and physiological features of these materials, amino acids can be used as monomeric building blocks in polymers that do not have a backbone with the conventional structure which can be found in peptides. These materials are the so called non-peptide amino acids-based polymers or amino-acid-derived polymers with modified backbone , and can be divided into four main categories (Bourke and Kohn, 2003) ... 

Collagen has been widely studied for biomedical applications such as bioresorbable sutures, artificial skin, wound dressings, and vascular grafts, due to its biocompatibility, mechanical properties, and degradability by enzymes like... 

Starch is another polysaccharide that is being studied for biomedical applications in the form of gels, films, and microspheres. Its poor mechanical strength prevents its use in the form of fibers. 

Biocompatibility of conducting polymers has been studied for biomedical applications including implantable medical devices [53, 61, 76]. Biocompatible polymer... 

Numerous iron-containing polymers have been synthesized and studied for biomedical application. Here we will look at simple iron(II) chelating polymers developed for medical applications. 

The biocompatible dimerized fatty acid (DFA)-based poly(aliphatic-aromatic ester) elastomers (PED) have been synthesized and studied for biomedical applications by El Fray et al. [194-200]. The design of nanostructured elastomeric biomaterials (mimicking biological materials) has been realized by using renewable resources, i.e., DFA. They are prepared by transesterification and polycondensation from the melt (see Section 7). The exceptional properties of DFA, e.g., excellent resistance to oxidative and thermal degradation, allow the preparation of PEDs without the use of thermal (often irritating) stabilizers. This is a particularly important feature making these polymers environmentally friendly and additive-free. What is equally important, by the use of the same method and stabilizer-free conditions, it was possible to prepare specially modified PED copolymers with an increased surface hydrophobicity. 

The establishment of appropriate animal models for biomedical application is essential if new techniques and procedures are to be applied to human conditions. Briefly, the syndrome of plant-induced cleft palate and contracture skeletal malformations in livestock ( crooked calf syndrome ), as described above, is the same whether it is induced by Lupinus, Conium or Nicotiana spp. Likewise, the malformations are described as the same in cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. While the development of a small ruminant model (goat) was primarily to study the mechanism of action of crooked calf syndrome in cattle, interest in the induced congenital cleft palate and the goat model led to biomedical applications (Panter et al., 2000a). 

Al203/Zr02 FGMs were studied intensively for biomedical applications,... 

Motta, A., Migliaresi, C., Faccioni, F., Torricelli, P., Fini, M., and Giardino, R. "Fibroin hydrogels for biomedical applications Preparation, characterization and in vitro cell culture studies". ]. Biomat. Sci. Polym. Ed. 15(7), 851-864 (2004). 

In this volume, we present five articles-two papers on the behavior of free radicals and active intermediates produced by irradiation in the polymeric matrix are studied one article is on radiation-induced polymerization as a process for biomedical application, and finally there are two papers concerned with the radiation effects on polymeric materials from ion beams and in relation to their use for fusion reactors. 

I. V. Laguta, O. M. Stavinskaya, P. O. Kuzema, and O. A. Kazakova, Hydrophilic-hydrophobic fumed silicas as carriers of vitamins for biomedical applications, i Proceedings of IX Polish-Ukrainian Symposium Theoretical and Experimental Studies of Interfacial Phenomena and Their Technological Applications" (Sandomierz, Wolka Milanowska, Poland, September 5-9, 2005) pp. 162-164. 

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