Hydrogel‐coated polyurethane/urea shape memory polymer foams

Abstract

Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are a class of responsive polymers that have attracted attention in designing biomedical devices because of their potential to improve minimally invasive surgeries. Use of porous SMPs in vascular grafts has been proposed because porosity aids in transfer of fluids through the graft and growth of vascular tissue. However, porosity also allows blood to leak through grafts so preclotting the materials is necessary. Here hydrogels have been synthesized from acrylic acid and N‐hydroxyethyl acrylamide and coated around a porous SMP produced from lactose functionalized polyurea‐urethanes. The biocompatibility of the polymers used to prepare the cross‐linked shape memory material is demonstrated using an in vitro cell assay. As expected, the hydrogel coating enhanced fluid uptake abilities without hindering the shape memory properties. These results indicate that hydrogels can be used in porous SMP materials without inhibiting the shape recovery of the material. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2019, 57, 1389–1395

3D Printing for the Clinic: Examining Contemporary Polymeric Biomaterials and Their Clinical Utility

“…Porous polyurethanes are well known for their potential in minimally invasive devices, leveraging shape memory behavior, although there are obvious limitations associated with the pore morphology and size distribution in such structures. [201][202][203][204][205][206][207][208] An exciting recent development in these materials is with reactive inkjet printing of PEG and several diisocyanate species to produce porous polyurethanes, although this method is still limited by uncontrolled porosity as a consequence of possible side reactions of the isocyanate groups that yield carbon dioxide leading to pore formation. 50,52 While this is a promising start to overcoming such limitations in printable materials with advanced properties, there is obviously extensive development still needed, and currently no specific medical applications have been proposed.…”

Review of Integrin‐Targeting Biomaterials in Tissue Engineering

“…[ 276 ] Biomaterial fabrication method provides researchers with control of the topography and geometry. [ 316,317 ] Hydrogels derived from synthetic and natural polymers have been studied in a variety of forms including cell‐encapsulating hydrogels, [ 318 ] coatings, [ 319 ] and porous formulations. [ 320 ] A variety of other processing methods can be used to generate a wide‐range of geometries including nonwoven meshes with electrospinning, [ 311 ] porous foams with freeze drying, [ 321 ] salt‐leaching, [ 322 ] and emulsion templating, [ 323 ] and more complex architectures with 3D printing.…”

Polymer-Based Scaffolds for Soft-Tissue Engineering

“…In this context, Lee et al (2013) prepared a chitosan-based bioartificial liver chip using the same processing method [135]. On the other hand, Dalton et al (2019) developed PEG shape memory scaffolds for vascular grafts using this technique [136].…”