Polyphosphazenes have been developed extensively for tissue engineering applications. This is based on their synthetic flexibility which allows the incorporation of a wide variety of biologically important molecules and their ability to degrade to a near-neutral pH while releasing non-toxic byproducts. These polymers contain an inorganic backbone of alternating nitrogen and phosphorus atoms with two organic substituents linked to each phosphorus atom. Previous research has focused on the incorporation of biomolecules such as vitamins and antioxidants which could provide a platform to guide incoming cells, while also being released during scaffold degradation to provide a significant long term effect. However, their bioactivity (i.e. their mineralization potential of biological apatite) remains unknown. The objective of this study was to determine the mineralization potential of various antioxidant polyphosphazenes when exposed to simulated body fluid (SBF). The resulting polymer-apatite composites were characterized by ESEM/EDS, XRD, FTIR, and DSC/TGA techniques.

Effect of side group modification on apatite mineralization of antioxidant containing-polyphosphazenes

244th National Meeting (2012)

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