The effect of ester/ether ratio in soft segment of biocompatible and biodegradable polyurethanes for tissue engineering

The cells as a tissue component need to viscoelastic, biocompatible, biodegradable and wettable extracellular matrix for their biological activity. In this study, in order to prepare biomedical polyurethane elastomers with good mechanical behavior and biodegradability, a series of novel polyester-polyether based polyurethanes (PUs) were synthesized using a two-step bulk reaction by melting pre-polymer method, taking 1, 4-butanediol (BDO) as chain extender, hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) as the hard segment, and poly (tetramethylene ether) glycol (PTMEG) and poly (ε-caprolactone diol) (PCL-Diol) as the soft segment without a catalyst. The soft to the hard segment ratio was kept constant in all samples. Polyurethane characteristics such as thermal and mechanical properties, wettability and water adsorption, biodegradability and cellular behaviour changed by changing the ratio of polyether diol to polyester diol composition in the soft segment. Our present work provides a new procedure for the preparation of engineered polyurethanes in surface properties and biodegradability, which could be a good candidate for bone, cartilage and skin tissue engineering