Preparation and swelling behavior of biodegradable hydrogels based on α,β‐poly(N‐2‐hydroxyethyl‐DL‐aspartamide)

Abstract

Biodegradable polymers and the hydrogels have been increasingly applied in a variety of biomedical fields and pharmaceutics. ␣,␤-Poly(N-2-hydroxyethyl-dl-aspartamide), PHEA, one of poly(amino acid)s with hydroxyethyl pendants, are known to be biodegradable and biocompatible, and has been studied as an useful biomaterial, especially for drug delivery, via appropriate structural modification. In this work, hydrogels based on PHEA were prepared by two-step reaction, that is, the crosslinking of polysuccinimide, the precursor polymer, with oligomeric PEG or PEI-diamines and the following nucleophilic ringopening reaction by ethanolamine. Soft hydrogels possessing varying degrees of gel strength could be prepared easily, depending on the amount of different crosslinking reagents.The swelling degrees, which were in the range of 10 -40 g-water/dry gel, increased somewhat at higher temperature, and also at alkaline pH of aqueous solution. A typical hydrogel remained almost unchanged for 1 week, at 37°C in phosphate buffer of pH 7.4, and then seemed to degrade slowly as time. A porous scaffold could be fabricated by the freeze drying of water-swollen gel. The PHEA-based hydrogels have potential for useful biomaterial applications including current drug delivery system.

Hydrophilic nanocomposites based on polyurethane/poly(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate) semi‐IPNs and modified/unmodified nanosilica for biomedical applications

“…Water uptake is suppressed for the samples with the amino and carboxyl modified nanosilicas, also at low RH values where sorption onto primary hydration sites dominates the behavior. 44,49 The highest values of water uptake are observed for the semi-IPN filled with 3 wt % unmodified nanosilica, reflecting the high hydrophilicity of the silica nanoparticles arising from the presence of AOH groups on the silica surface. 38 The inset to Figure 2 shows the water sorption isotherm of initial (unmodified) silica which confirms the high hydrophilicity of the silica nanoparticles.…”

Biodistribution of newly synthesized PHEA-based polymer-coated SPION in Sprague Dawley rats as magnetic resonance contrast agent

“…19 As a drug carrier, PHEA has good biopharmaceutical properties, such as high water solubility, multifunctionality, and low production cost. [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] …”

Biocompatible Polyhydroxyethylaspartamide-based Micelles with Gadolinium for MRI Contrast Agents

“…PHEA has good biopharmaceutical properties as drug carrier such as high water solubility, multifunctionality, and low cost of production [23-29]. …”