Smart Biomaterials

Abstract

The first part of this thesis focuses on biodegradable multiblock thermoresponsive poly(ether ester urethane)s consisting of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), poly(propylene glycol) (PPG) and poly-[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate] (PHB). The thermogelling behaviors of these copolymers as well as the thermodynamic basis of the micelle formation are presented. In the second part, novel thermoresponsive amphiphilic triblock copolymers with two hydrophilic PNIPAAm blocks flanking a central hydrophobic poly[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate] block were synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization. The water soluble copolymers formed core-corona type micelle aggregates at very low critical micelle concentrations. Using this copolymer, a thermoresponsive substrate was fabricated by drop-coating with an aqueous polymer solution, and used for the attachment and nonenzymatic temperature-induced detachment of human mesenchymal stem cells and mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells. The promising results from the studies show that these copolymers could be utilized as surface modifiers for tissue engineering applications.