Abstract
During the last decade, there has been extensive research on injectable biodegradable materials that are to be used as an in-situ gelling depot system for sustained release of an incorporated drug. In this chapter, thermogelling biodegradable polymer aqueous solutions are reviewed. These are low-viscous sols at a low temperature and become gels at the body temperature of warm-blooded animals by heat induced sol-to-gel transition. Such a thermogelling polymer aqueous solution has been suggested to be a very promising biomaterial as a minimally invasive injectable system for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. This chapter focuses on 'material characteristics' of the theromogelling biodegradable polymers developed so far, and 'perspectives' on the new material.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Injectable Biomaterials |
| Subtitle of host publication | Science and Applications |
| Publisher | Elsevier Inc. |
| Pages | 323-337 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781845695880 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2011 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by Mid-career Researcher Program through NRF of Korea grant funded by the MEST (Grant: 2010-0000832).
Keywords
- Biodegradability
- Block copolymer
- Drug delivery system
- Hydrogel
- In-situ gelation
- Sol-gel transition
- Thermosensitivity