Synthesis and crystallization behavior of poly (lactide-co-glycolide)

Poly (lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) has emerged as an important material in tissue engineering. However, lactic acid (LA) produced during PLGA degradation is prone to inflammation, which is a shortcoming that must be avoided. To this end, a method for preparing crystalline PLGA is described here by using cross-linking nucleation. The pentaerythritol (PET), L-lactide and glycolide were first used to prepare the four-armed PLGA (4arm-PLGA) via the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) method. Such symmetrical four-armed PLGA was then grafted and crosslinked with N'N-methylenebisacrylamide (MBAM) simultaneously, and finally obtained the crystalline 4arm-PLGA (C4-PLGA-M). The C4-PLGA-M has controllable crystallinity, which could effectively control the degradation rate of PLGA. The C4-PLGA-M were characterized by POM and WAXS, and the accelerated degradation tests of C4-PLGA-M showed a sixfold increase at most in the degradation time compared to alone fourarmed PLGA. The results of cell culture confirmed that the reduction of LA from hydrolysis process could be beneficial to the cell growth. Such crystalline C4-PLGA-M is expected to have ideal performance in tissue engineering.