Synthesis and Research Hotspots of Polyglycerol Sebacate

Polyglycerol sebacate is a medical polymer material that has attracted much attention in recent years. It is a nonlinear three-dimensional network polyester elastomer prepared by melt polycondensation with glycerol and sebacic acid as monomers. There have been many optimizations and modifications of the method in recent years. At the same time, because of its excellent properties, such as good biocompatibility, high elasticity and degradability, it can partially restore the form and function of the replacement tissue. Skin and vocal cords and other soft tissue replacement and soft tissue engineering and some new materials used in the field of electronics. In addition, polyglycerol sebacate applications are expanding to include drug delivery, skin and wound dressings, and more. However, it also has the disadvantages of low viscosity, limited hydrophilicity, differences in mechanical strength, and excessive degradation in vivo. Because the reaction conditions required for the conventional synthesis of polyglycerol sebacate are relatively harsh. At present, the hotspots of its research mainly focus on：

1. Modify and synthesize it, or form a composite material with other biomaterials with excellent properties, to solve the shortcomings of its use in some tissue engineering projects.
2. In different soft tissue engineering studies, the composite scaffolds constructed with polyglycerol sebacate as the main body or ligands have broad application prospects.

The synthesis of polyglycerol sebacate was first proposed by Wang et al. in 2002. Polymers are synthesized in 2 steps:

1. Prepolymerization process: 1:1 glycerol and sebacic acid were reacted in an argon atmosphere at 120°C for 24h, the vacuum pressure in the whole process was reduced from 133.322Pa to 5.33Pa, and the reaction was continued for 5h to obtain a prepolymer;
2. Cross-linking process: Put the prepolymer into 4Pa, and cross-link for 48h at 120℃ to obtain products with different molecular weights. The synthetic scheme is shown in the figure below.

The applications of polyglycerol sebacate composites in medicine and related fields are as follows:

Myocardial and vascular tissue engineering

Cardiac repair is limited by differences in regenerative potential and the lack of allografted cardiac tissue in transplantation, and myocardial tissue engineering is a promising approach for cardiac regeneration. By implanting a polyglyceryl sebacate polymer scaffold, it is combined with cardiomyocytes for regeneration to achieve the purpose of repairing the heart. Polyglycerol sebacate proved to be a promising elastic polymer for cardiac tissue engineering. Most of the current research in this area focuses on the development of polyglycerol sebacate-based cardiac patches. The polyglyceryl sebacate-substrate-related composite scaffold constructs can exhibit anisotropic properties to promote parallel cardiomyocyte alignment, and their mechanical properties can be matched to that of the myocardium. This biomaterial has great potential for vascular survival.

Drug carrier

The local delivery of the drug at the target site can be achieved by using some carriers for local administration, and the concentration of the target drug can be continuously maintained within the therapeutic window to reduce toxicity. In the application of drug delivery, the composite material based on polyglycerol sebacate plays a better role as the matrix or scaffold of the delivery vehicle due to its excellent biocompatibility. At the same time, the source of its application is based on its better drug encapsulation ability and its release kinetics. Therefore, polyglycerol sebacate plays the role of supplementation and coordination to exert its excellent biological properties, and has a good effect in the aspect of drug carrier.

Nerve guide material

The interaction between biomaterials and cells plays an important role in peripheral nerve tissue engineering, and the key to nerve regeneration is to design a bioactive scaffold that mimics the biological and physical environment and optimized biochemical properties of the natural neutral extracellular matrix . Most of the materials currently used for the preparation of nerve guiding scaffolds lack biological activity and biological function, resulting in poor interaction between biomaterials and cells. Therefore, the preparation of nerve-guiding scaffolds based on functional biomaterials to enhance the secretion of nerve growth factors by Schwann cells is an important research direction.

Skin and wound dressings

Skin tissue engineering requires skin substitutes with a three-dimensional macroporous structure with high porosity and pore interconnectivity to facilitate cellular ingrowth and transport of nutrients, oxygen, metabolites, and growth factors. Conventional materials for skin tissue engineering include natural and synthetic materials such as collagen, alginate, chitosan, silk fibroin, polylactic acid, and polycaprolactone. However, these materials still cannot fully meet the requirements of skin tissue engineering due to the risks of infection, slow degradation, insufficient mechanical properties, and local acidic environment. Polyglycerol sebacate has excellent elasticity and flexibility, and has a low inflammatory response. Its degradation products are non-toxic and can be removed by the body itself. Some studies have used it in skin and wound dressings.

Bone and cartilage tissue engineering

The current application of polyglyceryl sebacate composites in bone-cartilage tissue engineering mainly focuses on how to improve their mechanical properties and overcome the adverse cellular responses that occur. Scaffold properties suitable for cartilage tissue engineering can be made by varying the molar ratio and curing time of the base materials during prepolymer synthesis when polysebacin is polymerized, and by creating 3D-designed scaffolds through microfabrication methods.

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