Synthesis of degradable aliphatic polyesters: strategies to tailor the polymer microstructure

Key factors for successful tissue engineering are the synthesis and design of the scaffold materials. Aliphatic polyesters have been studied and often used as scaffold materials for tissue engineering. However, their lack of biological cues and degradation under high-temperature processing (e.g., 3D printing) are a limitation. In this thesis, different synthesis strategies are presented which has the potential to improve the performance of aliphatic polyesters as scaffolds for tissue regeneration. To stimulate interactions between exogenous materials and the surrounding tissue, two different strategies were applied. Either, by designing a two component system in which the different degradation profiles of the polymers allow for sequential release of growth factors. Or, by peptide functionalization of an aliphatic polyester chain using template-assisted chemo-enzymatic synthesis. The results from the studies were successful. A hierarchical system was obtained in which the poly(L-lactide-co-glycolide)-graft-poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether (PLGA-g-MPEG), hydroxyapatite solution formed a gel around and within the pores of the poly(L-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) scaffold at 37 ºC, within 1 min, that was stable for 3 weeks. The peptide functionalization was also successful where an aliphatic polyester of L-lactide was functionalized with different oligopeptides using a grafter (ethyl hept-6-enoylalaninate) and chemo-enzymatic synthesis. The thermal properties of poly(L-lactide-co-hydroxybutyrate) were tailored (by modification of the microstructure) to potentially improve the processability of the aliphatic polyester. The results showed that the yttrium salan catalyst was the most successful, yielding high molecular weight copolymers in shorter time. They also showed that the Tg could be tailored by varying the amount of rac-β-butyrolactone in the copolymer to better suit thermal processing techniques, such as 3D printing.QC 20171207