Abstract
We report here that the incorporation of several disulfide bonds along poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) gives temperature sensitivity, as well as biodegradability to PEG. To synthesize a PEG with temperature sensitivity in a physiologically important range (20-40°C), PEGs with molecular masses of 400 and 600 Da were randomly coupled by disulfide bonds. As the mol ratio of PEG (400 Da) disulfide to PEG (600 Da) disulfide increased from 40:60 to 60:40, the cloud point of the polymer aqueous solution decreased from 35°C to 27°C. The disulfide bonds between PEGs were degraded in the presence of a thiol-containing biomolecule of glutathione in a thiol-concentration-dependent manner.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 957-965 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Journal of Biomaterials Science, Polymer Edition |
Volume | 20 |
Issue number | 7-8 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Apr 2009 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the SRC program of MOST/KOSEF through the Center for Intelligent Nano-Bio Materials at Ewha Womans University (Grant No. R11-2005-008-00000-00) and the BioGreen 21 program (20080401034006) of the Korea Rural Development Administration.
Keywords
- Disulfide biodegradability
- Lower critical solution temperature (lcst)
- Poly(ethylene glycol)