The Effect of Heat Treatment toward Glycerol-Based, Photocurable Polymeric Scaffold: Mechanical, Degradation and Biocompatibility

Abstract

Photocurable polymers have become increasingly important for their quick prototyping and high accuracy when used in three dimensional (3D) printing. However, some of the common photocurable polymers are known to be brittle, cytotoxic and present low impact resistance, all of which limit their applications in medicine. In this study, thermal treatment was studied for its effect and potential applications on the mechanical properties, degradability and biocompatibility of glycerol-based photocurable polymers, poly(glycerol sebacate) acrylate (PGSA). In addition to the slight increase in elongation at break, a two-fold increase in both Young’s modulus and ultimate tensile strength were also observed after thermal treatment for the production of thermally treated PGSA (tPGSA). Moreover, the degradation rate of tPGSA significantly decreased due to the increase in crosslinking density in thermal treatment. The significant increase in cell viability and metabolic activity on both flat films and 3D-printed scaffolds via digital light processing-additive manufacturing (DLP-AM) demonstrated high in vitro biocompatibility of tPGSA. The histological studies and immune staining indicated that tPGSA elicited minimum immune responses. In addition, while many scaffolds suffer from instability through sterilization processes, it was proven that once glycerol-based polymers have been treated thermally, the influence of autoclaving the scaffolds were minimized. Therefore, thermal treatment is considered an effective method for the overall enhancement and stabilization of photocurable glycerol-based polymeric scaffolds in medicine-related applications.

Stress‐Assisted Erosion of Poly(Glycerol‐Co‐Sebacate) Acrylate Elastomer

“…Furthermore, recently published in-situ degradation experiments of PGSA under similar conditions (0.2 m NaOH) confirm that mass change as a function of degradation time also follows a linear trend. [25][26][27] We find that these degradation trends are consistent with what we observed when monitoring the diameter change as a function of time, despite the difference in the measured physical parameters.…”

Biodegradable Polyester-Based Vitrimers Exhibiting Transesterification-Induced Topography Isomerization under Recycling

“…In the literature, an extent of degradation of 5 wt % was reported of a photocured PGS sample in a 20-day test. 51 The extent of degradation of photocured PGS was much smaller than the values found with PGS-V-1.5 (27 wt %) and PGS-V-2.0 (33 wt %) in this work. The PGS-based vitrimers even exhibited a rapid degradation behavior compared to the neat photocured PGS because the PGS-based vitrimers possessed high fractions of degradable eater linkages at both the main-chain and interchain cross-linking sites.…”

Renewed interest in biopolymer composites: incorporation of renewable, plant-sourced fibers

“…Glycerol is a natural material that is present nearly all human diets, enhancing both safety and perception of safetly for applications that can involve human contact. 58,59 Poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS) is a biodegradable, elastomeric thermoset, well-known in tissue engineering as a cartilage mimic. 60 A synthetic strategy for PGS production is outlined in Scheme 2.…”