Abstract
In the last half-century, the development of biodegradable polyesters for biomedical applications has advanced significantly. Biodegradable polyester materials containing external stimuli-sensitive linkages are favored in the development of therapeutic devices for pharmacological applications such as delivery vehicles for controlled/sustained drug release. These selectively biodegradable polyesters degrade after particular external stimulus (e.g., pH or redox potential change or the presence of certain enzymes). This review outlines the current development of biodegradable synthetic polyesters materials able to undergo hydrolytic or enzymatic degradation for various biomedical applications, including tissue engineering, temporary implants, wound healing and drug delivery.
Highlights
The days of Carothers’s skepticism about the quality of polyesters (PES) are long gone and deeper knowledge brings insight into many areas of interest every day
The efficacy of the NPs to release the Nile Red (NR) was probed upon incubation with activated neutrophils, simulating a physiologically relevant ROS-rich environment in vitro, where the NPs formulated from a polymer of arylboronic esters with ether linkage showed a two-fold enhancement of release if compared with the NPs with directly linked arylboronic esters while controls showed a nonspecific response to ROS producing cells [125]
Degradable polyesters have been subject of great attention along decades because of their nature characteristics and because they can be degraded into smaller, biocompatible molecules that are cleared via conventional paths, such as renal filtration and hepatic metabolization
Summary
The days of Carothers’s skepticism about the quality of polyesters (PES) are long gone and deeper knowledge brings insight into many areas of interest every day. There are particular polymers—the so-called smart polymers—which benefit from the fact that they can undergo structural changes after being exposed to an external stimulus (pH change, temperature change, presence of particular molecules, etc.) leading to significant change in physico-chemical or solution properties within a relatively narrow window of the external environment change. There are such smart polyesters, which respond to external stimuli, too.
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