Study on In-Vitro Degradation of Bioabsorbable Polymers Poly (hydroxybutyrate-co-valerate) - (PHBV) and Poly (caprolactone) - (PCL)

Abstract

The increasing use of bioabsorbable polymeric materials in medicine has stimulated researchers in the materials field to search for solutions for the replacement of metallic artifacts by bioabsorbable polymers. Therefore, this study describes the in vitro degradation of PHBV, PCL and the blends of these polymers, both of which are bioabsorbable polymers. The samples were prepared by extrusion followed by injection, and subjected submitted to in vitro degradation in phosphate buffered saline solution with pH 7.3 and kept at 37° C. Through the characterization of the variation of mass, molar mass, mechanical properties and morphology, the results indicated that the samples analyzed are more stable to hydrolytic degradation when compared to other bioabsorbable polymers. The materials indicate signs of degradation after 30 days, with a small reduction in the molar mass. After 180 days, the materials indicated a significant reduction of molar mass and reduction in the mechanical properties

In Vitro Degradation of Poly(caprolactone)/nHA Composites

“…For the rest of the scaffolds, which have a higher percentage of nanoparticles, the fibrous appearance may be appreciated when the pores are stretched. In the micrographs of these samples, neither did degradationrelated products appear nor were nHA particles exposed outside the scaffolds walls and the surface morphology cannot be seen to change from a smooth to an abrupt surface as other authors have observed in their work [8,14,15].…”

“…The change in pH of the aqueous media with degradation time was determined to check for the release of acid residues from the PLLA samples. This determination also provided information on total acid production [15][16][17]. The pH takes its highest values in the first week of degradation and it is higher when the content of nHA is lower.…”

Biodegradable Blend Nanoparticles of Amphiphilic Diblock Copolymers Prepared by Nano-Precipitation Method

“…Their thermal, biodegradation and drug release properties can be controlled through several approaches including block length adjustment [7][8][9][10] and copolymerization [11]. The physical blending is an alternative method that has been widely used to adjust the properties of polymers such as crystallinity, mechanical properties and biodegradation properties [12][13][14][15]. These properties strongly affected the drug release behaviors.…”

In vitro degradation of a unique porous PHBV scaffold manufactured using selective laser sintering

“…Compared to the scaffolds made using non‐AM techniques in the two degradation studies mentioned above, our scaffolds made using SLS have different microstructures, higher relative densities, higher molecular weights, and exhibited a higher reduction in molecular weight after incubation in PBS. These differences suggest that scaffolds made using SLS exhibit excellent water absorption ability, leading to a more significant decrease in molecular weight than those found in other studies …”

“…The change in mechanical properties found in this study differs from those reported in other studies, as shown in Table . Casarin et al investigated the degradation of bulk PHBV incubated in PBS for 30 days and found increases in modulus and strength of 142% and 107%, respectively, compared to their respective original tensile properties. Jack et al also found an increase in compressive modulus and strength after 2 weeks incubation of highly porous scaffolds in a simulated body fluid (SBF).…”