PolyHIPEs are porous emulsion-templated polymers that are usually synthesized within surfactant-stabilized water-in-oil high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs), emulsions with dispersed phase volume fractions that are over 74%. Typical polyHIPEs have highly interconnected porous microstructures, low bulk densities, and the ability to rapidly absorb large quantities of liquid through capillary action. Porous biodegradable polyHIPEs of interest for tissue engineering were synthesized based on biodegradable oligomers using two different polymerization mechanisms, free radical polymerization and step-growth polymerization. For polyHIPEs synthesized using a vinyl-terminated biodegradable crosslinking comonomer, cell penetration into the polyHIPE and cell adhesion onto the polyHIPE depended on the modulus of the porous monolith walls. For polyHIPEs synthesized using a polyurethane reaction between diisocyanates (DI) and biodegradable diol/triol oligomers, the reaction between the DI and the water in the internal phase yielded poly(urethane urea)s (PUUs) and generated CO<sub>2</sub> as a by-product. The cells spread, proliferated, and differentiated into myotubes on the PUU polyHIPEs.

Degradable porous polymer biomaterials through emulsion-templating

249th National Meeting (2015)

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