Biocompatible poly(glycerol sebacate) base segmented co-polymer with interesting chemical structure and tunable mechanical properties: In vitro and in vivo study

In this study, different polycaprolactone (PCL) soft blocks were incorporated into poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS) structure to prepare a series of PGS-based elastomers with a wide range of chemical compositions, mechanical properties, and modulated degradation behavior. The PGS and PGS-co-PCL elastomers were prepared under a thermal curing process in the absence of any catalysts. Here, in addition to the effect of different lengths of PCL block, the effect of thermal curing time on the mechanical properties and degradation behavior of the elastomers was investigated. The synthesized PGS-co-PCL elastomers exhibited tunable mechanical properties in the range of soft tissues. Moreover, the in vitro degradation study revealed linear degradation kinetics with approximately twofold decrease in the elastomers degradation rate. In vitro study showed that proliferation of human olfactory ecto-mesenchymal stem cells (OE-MSCs) was supported on PGS-co-PCL elastomer. In addition, in vivo evaluation of PGS-co-PCL elastomer confirmed mild tissue response with high angiogenesis, indicating a good candidate in various biomedical applications and soft tissue engineering.