In Vitro And in Vivo Degradation of Photo-Crosslinked Poly(Trimethylene Carbonate-co-ε-Caprolactone) Networks.

Three-armed poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC) and poly(trimethylene carbonate-co-Ɛ-caprolactone) (P(TMC-co-Ɛ-CL)) macromers with molecular weights of approximately 30 kg/mol were synthesized by ring-opening polymerization and subsequent functionalization with methacrylic anhydride. Networks were then prepared by photo-crosslinking. To investigate the in vitro and in vivo degradation properties of these photo-crosslinked networks and assess the effect of Ɛ-caprolactone content on the degradation properties, PTMC networks and copolymer networks with two different TMC:Ɛ-CL ratios were prepared. PTMC networks degraded slowly, via an enzymatic surface erosion process, both in vitro and in vivo. Networks prepared from P(TMC-co-Ɛ-CL) macromers with a 74:26 ratio were found to degrade slowly as well, via a surface erosion process, albeit at a higher rate compared to PTMC networks. Increasing the Ɛ-CL content to a ratio of 52:48, resulted in a faster degradation. These networks lost their mechanical properties much sooner than the other networks. Thus, PTMC and P(TMC-co-Ɛ-CL) networks are interesting networks for tissue engineering purposes and the exact degradation properties can be tuned by varying the TMC:Ɛ-CL ratio, providing researchers with a tool to obtain copolymer networks with the desired degradation rate depending on the intended application. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.