The future of shape memory polymer scaffolds

The shape memory behavior of an SMP makes it a very desirable material for use in biomedical applications. Thermally activated SMPs can be programmed and stored in a small secondary shape, and on introduction to the body and water plasticization, recover their large original shape (Beilvert et al., 2014). This property of SMPs can be harnessed for minimally invasive surgery and tissue engineering scaffolds (Beilvert et al., 2014). However, ceU compatibility of an SMP biomaterial needs to be extensively understood to determine its feasibility as a short-term or long-term implant and the impact of its SME on cells. 

like other polymers, can be biostable or degradable. A substantial amount of the work done on degradable SMP scaffolds has been performed by Ganger or Lendlein, and is too great to be covered sufficiently here (UUm et al., 2014 Nochel et al., 2014 Schmidt et al., 2014 Friess et al., 2014 Lendlein et al., 2014 Yang et al., 2013  

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