The development of ‘smart’ biomaterials capable of responding to external stimuli such as pH, light, and temperature have become increasingly popular due to their possible applications including controlled release of therapeutics. The most widely used thermoresponsive biomaterials are based on acrylamides that undergo a reversible hydrophilicity change at a specific lower critical solution temperature (LCST). However, the nondegradable backbone of poly(acrylamides) limits their use <i>in vivo</i>. On the other hand, thermoresponsive biopolymers such as elastin-like peptides (ELPs) have been gaining interest due to decreased toxicity and self-assembly abilities but require complex synthetic methods. Recently our lab has developed a library of novel thermoresponsive polyesters inspired by polyacrylamides prepared by simple room temperature carbodiimide coupling. The resulting thermoresponsive polyesters exhibit a range of LCSTs dependent on polymer structure and environment similar to that of ELPs and show inherent hydrolytic degradability. These materials have a multitude of potential applications such as degradable scaffolds and protein and drug delivery.

Synthesis and characterization of thermoresponsive, biodegradable polyesters

249th National Meeting (2015)

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