Stereocontrolled coordination-insertion polymerization of rac-lactide remains a catalytic challenge despite the large number of studies and the successful marketing of polylactide as a disposable plastic. Although a number successful catalysts have been proposed, a system re-uniting high stereoselectivity with high activity and chemical robustness remains absent. We have been recently concentra...

Flexible organic phototransistors are fabricated using polylactide (PLA), a polar bio-material, as the dielectric material. The charge trapping effect induced by the polar groups of the PLA layer leads to a photosensitivity close to ≈104. The excellent performance of this new device design is further demonstrated by incorporating the photo-transistors into a sensor array to successfully image a...

Absorbable polylactide films were studied in order to observe the effect of orientation on the resulting hydrolytic degradation pattern. Two types of polylactide films with two levels of molecular orientation were studied, during a nine month exposure to a phosphate buffered solution at 37°C. The films were sectioned and quantified as to void area, birefringence area, and intensity of birefring...

Angiogenesis and osteogenesis coupling processes are essential for bone regeneration, and human bone marrow stromal cells (hBMSCs) along with endothelial cells (ECs) are crucial participants. Deferoxamine (DFO), a hypoxia-mimetic agent, could activate the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α signaling pathway and trigger angiogenic and osteogenic effects in these cells. However, the lifetime of DF...

Compared to two-dimensional substrates, only a few methodologies exist for the spatially controlled decoration of three-dimensional objects, such as microparticles. Combining electrohydrodynamic co-jetting with synthetic polymer chemistry, we were able to create two- and three-patch microparticles displaying chemically orthogonal anchor groups on three distinct surface patches of the same parti...

Synthetic routes towards new conjugates of hydrophilic zinc(II) phthalocyanine (ZnPc) with poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(propylene oxide)-b-poly(ethylene oxide) (Pluronic P123) and poly(L-lactide) (PLLA), are described. The main semiproduct ZnPc was obtained by heating 4-nitrophthalimide with urea and zinc chloride, followed by the reduction step. Steglich esterification was used to synthesize tw...

Different synthetic biomaterials such as polylactide (PLA), polycaprolactone and poly-l-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone (PLCL) have been studied for urothelial tissue engineering, with favourable results. The aim of this research was to further optimize the growth surface for human urothelial cells (hUCs) by comparing different PLCL-based membranes: smooth (s) and textured (t) PLCL and knitted PLA me...

Recently, the potential application of deferoxamine (DFO) in several iron dysregulation diseases has been highlighted. However, DFO presents significant limitations in clinical use due to its poor absorption in the gut and very short plasma half-life. To overcome these problems, the feasibility of chitosan/alginate hydrogels as prolonged delivery systems of DFO was investigated. Hydrogel alone ...

The preparation and technological characterization of nanosphere formulations (NS) containing the anticancer drug paclitaxel (PTX) are reported. Poly(lactide) (PLA) and poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) nanospheres (NS) were prepared by a solvent displacement method. They showed a mean particle size in the range 150-300 nm, with a high homogeneity (polydispersity index < 0.3). For long term sta...

AIMS To assess the potential of electrospun poly(lactide-co-glycolide) membranes to provide a biodegradable cell carrier system for limbal epithelial cells. MATERIAL & METHODS 50:50 poly(lactide-co-glycolide) scaffolds were spun, sterilized and seeded with primary rabbit limbal epithelial cells. Cells were cultured on the scaffolds for 2 weeks and then examined by confocal microscopy, cryosec...