Recently a novel crosslinkable and biodegradable copolymer poly(propylene fumarateco-caprolactone) (PPF-co-PCL) has been synthesized in our lab (Figure 1). By varying copolymer composition, controllable physical properties can be achieved to satisfy various needs in tissue engineering, particularly, bone and nerve regenerations. The physical properties of the copolymers have been extensively in...

By using absorption and fluorescence (steady-state and time-resolved) techniques, the interaction between a poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), randomly grafted with pyrene (Py) units (PAAMePy55), and a triblock copolymer of poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(propylene oxide) (EO(20)PO(68)EO(20), P123) was investigated. From the fluorescence data, it is shown that upon addition of P123 a decrease of the (pyre...

We have developed a liquid material for embolization of arteriovenous malformations that is a mixture of ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer and metrizamide dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide. Upon contact with blood, dimethyl sulfoxide rapidly diffuses into the blood and forms an ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer elastic soft sponge that obstructs both the feeder and the nidus. The material, which is...

We have developed a new ternary polymeric system, poly(ethylene-alt-propylene) (PEP)/poly(butylene oxide) (PBO)/PEP-PBO, to study the complex phase behavior near the bicontinuous microemulsion phase channel. The molecular weights of the PEP and PBO homopolymers are 2600 and 3050 g/mol, respectively, and the copolymer is 23.4 kg/mol with volume fraction composition fPBO=0.49. A combination of sm...

Pluronic block copolymers (triblock copolymers of poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(propylene oxide)) exhibit a chemosensitizing effect on multidrug resistant cell lines. Changes in membrane permeability are hypothesized to be responsible because inhibition of drug transport mediated by both the multidrug-resistance-associated protein and the P-glycoprotein drug efflux system has been observed. To ...

Abstract Biomolecule adsorption is the first stage of biofouling. The aim of this work was to reduce the adsorption of proteins on stainless steel (SS) and titanium surfaces by modifying them with a poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)-poly(propylene oxide) (PPO)-PEO triblock copolymer. Anchoring of the central PPO block of the copolymer is known to be favoured by hydrophobic interaction with the substra...

Aqueous two-phase systems (ATPSs) composed by UCON (ethylene oxide/propylene oxide copolymer) and potassium phosphate salts were for the first time evaluated in the recovery of Peniophora cinerea laccase from complex fermented medium. The ATPSs were obtained by combining the random copolymer UCON with KH2PO4, potassium phosphate buffer pH 7 or K2HPO4. According to the results, protein partition...

This chapter is a summary of our work on the design of block copolymer micellar systems with improved solubilization capacity for poorly soluble aromatic drugs. The copolymers of interest are block copoly(oxyalkylene)s with linear dior triblock architecture which combine hydrophilic poly(ethylene oxide) with hydrophobic blocks formed from poly(propylene oxide), poly(1,2-butylene oxide), poly(st...