Poly(L-Lactide-co-Glycolide) (PLLGA) - Fast Synthesis Method for the Production of Tissue Engineering Scaffolds

Poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) is a biodegradable and biocompatible polyester commonly used in the biomedical field. However, the hydrophobic and crystalline structure of PLLA can difficult cell interactions, offering limitations to some biomedical applications. These limitations can be overcome by random copolymerization of L-lactide (LLA) with glycolide (GA) to obtain poly(L-Lactide-co-Glycolide) (PLLGA) copolymers. Bulk ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of LLA and GA offers versatility to the PLLGAs as regards to their physicochemical properties, hydrophilic/hydrophobic balance, and degradation rates. Thus, this study aims the production of PLLGA via bulk ROP and the investigation of the effect of the different amounts of LLA and GA in the PLLGA copolymers by spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermal analyzes (DSC and TGA) comparing with the PLLA. The applied methodology produced PLLGAs with a rapid copolymerization time (2 h). These PLLGAs presented adequate thermal stability (Tg > 37 ºC - physiological temperature and Tdeg > 200 ºC) that, combined with its copolymer structure, makes it a potential biomaterial for application as scaffolds in tissue engineering.