ABSTRACT
The 43rd Polymer Symposium of the Society of Polymer Science, Japan, was held in Kyushu on October 12–14 in 1994. The session for hybrid biomedical materials, which was primarily focused on “Biocompatibility”, “Cell Culture”, “Hybrid Artificial Organs”, and “Drug Delivery Systems”, consisted of two invited lectures and 57 papers. S.C. Kim, Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, presented the “Hydrophilic/Hydrophobic IPN Materials” research (1672, E790; 3 references). Hydrophilic-hydrophobic interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) materials were prepared by the simultaneous polymerization method. Hydrophilic polyurethane (PU) network was prepared by forming the NCO terminated prepolymer first by reacting the polyethylene glycol with molecular weight of 1,000 and hexamethylene diisocyanate. The NCO terminated prepolymer was then reacted with trimethylolpropane (TMP) and 1,4 butanediol (BD) mixture to form the hydrophilic polyurethane network. Hydrophobic polystyrene (PS) network was prepared by reacting the styrene monomer, divinyl benzene and benzoyl peroxide mixture in bulk. The IPN sheets and tubes were prepared for the blood compatibility experiment and their surface morphology was found to form a continuous PU matrix with dispersed PS domains in the size range 0.1 to 0.7 μm. Platelet adhesion and deformation on the IPN surface decreased depending on the PS composition. Ex vivo A-A shunt test with rabbit showed prolonged blood occlusion times of 104 minutes compared to the 45 minutes occlusion time with Biomer using 1.5 mm I.D. tubes. W.J. Cho, Kosin University, presented the “Synthesis and Biological Activity of Polymers Containing Epoxy and Carbonyl Group” research (1681, E797; 9 references). In this lecture a new biologically active polymer composed of exo-3,6-epoxy-1,2,3,6-tetrahydrophthalic anhydride (ETA) and exo-3,6-epoxy-1,2,3,6-tetrahydrophthalic glycinylimide (ETGI) was expected to show high biological activity and low toxicity because of the structural feature and polyanionic character after hydrolysis. The antitumor activities of the synthesized monomers and polymers against Sarcoma 180 were evaluated using tumor bearing BALB/C mice.
