Enzymatic degradation and radiopaque attenuation of iodinated poly(ester-urethane)s with inherent radiopacity

Abstract

Biodegradable radiopaque iodinated polyurethanes (I-PUs) based on poly(e-caprolactone) diol (PCL) as soft segment have been synthesized using 4,4′-isopropylidene-(2,6-diiodophenol) (IBPA) as chain extender. In order to elucidate the effect of iodinated chain extender on degradation properties of I-PUs, a control polyurethane with bisphenol A as chain extender was also synthesized. The enzymatic degradation study of these I-PUs was carried out using phosphate-buffered solution (pH 7.4) at 37 °C. The mass loss, surface morphology, iodine content, radiopacity, hydrophilicity and thermal properties of the samples during degradation were characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray detector (EDX), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and static contact angle. Results of enzymatic degradation during 3 months indicated that the incorporation of iodinated chain extender greatly hindered the in vitro degradation of I-PUs compared with the control PU-C sample. The reason for the retarded degradation was attributed to the bulky iodine atoms on IBPA chain extender with steric hindrance, which decreased the surface hydrophilicity of I-PUs and slowed water/lipase diffusion rate. Moreover, the radiopacity of I-PUs does not sharply attenuate after long-time degradation, which is useful for interventional biomedical applications.