pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S12 - Biopolymers and Processes/Biomedical
Poster Presentation
 
 

Development of a body temperature triggered shape-memory stent via toughening sustainable poly(propylene carbonate) with thermoplastic polyurethane

Zeng Bingbing (1), Zheng Yu (1)*, Guo Shaoyun (1)

(1) Polymer Research Institute of Sichuan University - Sichuan - China

As one of the most revolutionary medical interventions, vascular stents have indelible contribution to the treatment of coronary artery disease in the last several decades. The major function of stents to open occluded blood vessels is operated by a principle of forced shape expansion, which is usually accomplished via the inflation of a bare-metal-stent equipped with a balloon. However, this method is invasive and inherently risky, with common complications such as arterial damage and renarrowing because of in-stent restenosis. Recently, thermal-induced shape-memory polymers (TSMPs) with capacity of automatic shape transformations in response to a temperature stimulus have been extensively used to fabricate biomedical stents. Particularly, the TSMPs-based stents can remove the need to introduce an additional device for shape expansion because of their self-expandable ability, significantly reducing the risks proposed above, which have been regarded as an ideal alternative of the traditional stents. Herein, a TSMP with body temperature actuation was prepared by melt compounding the biocompatible thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) with the sustainable poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC) featuring a glass transition temperature at around 37 ℃. With an addition of TPU, the ductility of PPC was dramatically enhanced, leading to the increasement of shape recoverability but a deterioration of shape fixity. Remarkably, the blend containing 50 wt% TPU (PT50) presented the optimal shape-memory effect (SME) with balanced shape recovery and shape fixation performances, because of the formation of co-continuous structure promoting the synergy between PPC and TPU. Moreover, the PT50 sample exhibited significant improvement in not only the shape recovery ratio (about 95.0%), but also the recovery speed and recovery stress, which enabled it to achieve excellent SME when applied in practical use. After processed into a spiral-like stent, PT50 showed an efficient self-expansion within only 20 s at 37 ℃. Besides, the blood and cell compatibility tests revealed the good biocompatibility of PT50,further demonstrating its great potential for development of biomedical stents.