Crosslinkable citronellol containing polyphosphazenes and their biomedical potential

ABSTRACT An increased focus exists on the development of materials that might serve as ligament or tendon tissue engineering scaffolds. Requirements for a suitable candidate polymer include biodegradability, biocompatibility, and elasticity. In an attempt to meet these requirements novel citronellol‐containing polyphosphazenes were synthesized, characterized, and crosslinked to generate elastomers. Citronellol was chosen as a side group due to its anti‐inflammatory properties in addition to the presence of a double bond in its structure to permit polymer crosslinking. Alanine ethyl ester was chosen as a co‐substituent to tune hydrolysis rates without severely affecting the glass transition temperatures of the final polymers. Hydrolysis of the uncrosslinked polymers in the form of films in deionized water at 37 °C showed between ∼8 and 16% mass loss and between a ∼28 and 88% molecular weight decline over 12 weeks. Polymers were also crosslinked using ultraviolet radiation for increasing amounts of time. Preliminary mechanical testing of the homo‐citronellol polymer indicated increasing modulus and decreasing tensile strength with increased crosslink density. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2014, 52, 2258–2265 The high injury rate associated with torn ligaments and tendons has stimulated research into their repair using tissue engineering. Polyphosphazenes with anti‐inflammatory and antimicrobial citronellol side groups have been synthesized for possible use as tissue engineering matrices for ligament and tendon regeneration.