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 four-armed 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.