Biodegradable elastomer for soft tissue engineering

In this work we present the synthesis of a biodegradable, elastomeric material with a wide range of mechanical properties. The synthesis of the material was done by condensation polymerization of malic acid and 1,12–dodecandiol. The synthesized materials have low Young’s modulus ranging from about 1 to 4 MPa and a high elongation at break of 25–737% depending on the crosslinking density of the system. The cell growth observed under microscope showed good proliferation at 3 days of culture indicating good biocompatibility and support of L929 cells growth. The fabrication of 3D scaffold from these materials using the super critical CO2 foaming method was also attempted. This method of scaffold fabrication is appropriate for materials that are easily hydrolysable and it also has the advantage of being a solvent free process. These materials are generally soft, biocompatible and biodegradable making them suitable for tissue engineering of soft tissues that are elastic in nature like muscles and blood vessels.