Monitoring of the parameters of synthesis of poly(glycerol sebacate) and influence on the physicochemical and biological properties of its elastomer

Resumen

Poly (glycerol sebacate) is a polymer that has great versatility thanks to its adaptable mechanical properties depending on the synthesis process that precedes it. It has characteristics such as great biocompatibility and good biodegradability that make it highly attractive in the field of tissue engineering and biomedical applications such as drug delivery. These properties are provided thanks to its main components, glycerol and sebacic acid since both have the approval of the "U.S. Food and Drug Administration". To synthesize the named polymer, a two-stage polycondensation process is used. The first called prepolymerization, usually lasts around 24 hours and is carried out at high temperatures and under inert atmosphere of nitrogen or argon. The next stage, the polymerization stage, requires longer periods, around 48 hours, under the same temperature conditions. To generate the material scaffold necessary for future biomedical applications moulds templates are usually used. As mentioned previously, it has a high capacity for mechanical adaptability depending on which synthesis parameters are used. Among the parameters that most affect the final properties of the PGS polymer network are temperature, reaction time and the ratio of its main components. Although the synthesis is carried out in the same way in different research groups, the final material obtained can vary greatly from one to the other. This is due to the inconsistency in the synthesis processes and the lack of knowledge of the effects of the different synthesis parameters. Therefore, a better understanding of the synthesis process is necessary, being able to reduce production costs and allow the production of this biomaterial at scale. Consequently, the early stage of synthesis (prepolymerization), was first studied by using various characterization techniques to determine its physicochemical properties during the first moments of its synthesis. The results showed the kinetic tendency of the polycondensation reaction between the different hydroxyls of glycerol and the carboxyls of sebacic acid. Firstly, linear chains are formed by the reaction of the primary hydroxyls, which then, during the polymerization process, cross-link through the reaction of the secondary hydroxyl remnants. In addition to this, a hypothesis was raised about one of the synthesis parameters that had not been previously studied, the applied atmosphere. This study revealed how inert atmospheres favour the generation of a more ordered network but with a lesser degree of crosslinking, while more oxidative atmospheres generated a less organized structure but with greater crosslinking of its polymeric network. To conclude, PGS was used to solve a biological problem. The aim was to study the effect of the variation of the PGS curing temperature using proteins belonging to the extracellular matrix (fibronectin and type I collagen) in the early stages of adhesion of human umbilical cord cells. For this, it was necessary to optimize the material coating technique called spin coating to obtain coatings thin enough so that their roughness does not affect the behaviour of proteins and cells during the in vitro study of the different effects of the different polymeric networks.