Characterization and biocompatibility studies of new degradable poly(urea)urethanes prepared with arginine, glycine or aspartic acid as chain extenders

Polyurethanes are very often used in the cardiovascular field due to their tunable physicochemical properties and acceptable hemocompatibility although they suffer from poor endothelialization. With this in mind, we proposed the synthesis of a family of degradable segmented poly(urea)urethanes (SPUUs) using amino acids (l-arginine, glycine and l-aspartic acid) as chain extenders. These polymers degraded slowly in PBS (pH 7.4) after 24 weeks via a gradual decrease in molecular weight. In contrast, accelerated degradation showed higher mass loss under acidic, alkaline and oxidative media. MTT tests on polyurethanes with l-arginine as chain extenders showed no adverse effect on the metabolism of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) indicating the leachables did not provoke any toxic responses. In addition, SPUUs containing l-arginine promoted higher levels of HUVECs adhesion, spreading and viability after 7 days compared to the commonly used Tecoflex(A (R)) polyurethane. The biodegradability and HUVEC proliferation on l-arginine-based SPUUs suggests that they can be used in the design of vascular grafts for tissue engineering.