In-vitro degradation behavior and biological properties of a novel maleated poly (D, L-lactide-co-glycolide) for biomedical applications

Abstract

Synthesized biodegradable polymers with controlled degradability and good biological safety would be useful in biomedical applications. In this work a novel maleated poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (MPLGA) was melt copolymerized from maleic anhydride, D,L-lactide and glycolide monomers. The degradation behavior in phosphate-buffered solution (PBS) was investigated and the biological properties were studied by using fibroblastic cells cultured in an extract of MPLGA and by an in-vitro cell cytotoxicity test. The results indicated that the MPLGA was successfully obtained using the melt-copolymerization method. The maleic anhydride groups in the MPLGA led to a faster degradation in PBS than PLGA. Fibroblastic cells showed normal morphologies in MPLGA extracts, and the MPLGA materials showed no cell cytotoxicity. The in-vitro biological properties indicated that the obtained MPLGA had good biocompatibility and would be useful for medical applications.

Keywords:

• biological properties
• degradation behavior
• maleated poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide)
• maleic anhydride

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Fund of China (No. 51773057), IUC Program of Hunan Provincial Education Department (No. 15CY004) and National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center of Chemical Engineering and Materials (2016[7]).