Biodegradable Polymers Derived From Amino Acids

✍ Scribed by Wahid Khan; Saravanan Muthupandian; Shady Farah; Neeraj Kumar; Abraham J. Domb

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 329 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1616-5187
• DOI: 10.1002/mabi.201100324

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

In the past three decades, the use of polymeric materials has increased dramatically for biomedical applications. Many α‐amino acids derived biodegradable polymers have also been intensely developed with the main goal to obtain bio‐mimicking functional biomaterials. Polymers derived from α‐amino acids may offer many advantages, as these polymers: (a) can be modified further to introduce new functions such as imaging, molecular targeting and drugs can be conjugated chemically to these polymers, (b) can improve on better biological properties like cell migration, adhesion and biodegradability, (c) can improve on mechanical and thermal properties and (d) their degradation products are expected to be non‐toxic and readily metabolized/excreted from the body. This manuscript focuses on biodegradable polymers derived from natural amino acids, their synthesis, biocompatibility and biomedical applications. It is observed that polymers derived from α‐amino acids constitute a promising family of biodegradable materials. These provide innovative multifunctional polymers possessing amino acid side groups with biological activity and with innumerous potential applications.magnified image