ABSTRACT
Abstract ................................................................................................. 108 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................. 108 4.2 Chemical Structures of Amphiphilic Polymers
Based on Polysaccharides ............................................................ 109 4.3 Amphiphilic Polymers Self Assembly ......................................... 118 4.4 Biomedical Applications of Amphiphilic Polymers .................... 124 4.5 Concluding Remarks .................................................................... 135 Keywords .............................................................................................. 135 References ............................................................................................. 136
MARIETA NICHIFOR*, GEORGETA MOCANU, and CRISTINA M. STANCIU
Department of Natural Polymers, Bioactive and Biocompatible Materials, “Petru Poni” Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Aleea Grigore Ghica Voda 41A, 700487 Iasi, Romania
*Corresponding author. E-mail: nichifor@icmpp.ro
ABSTRACT
A large variety of amphiphilic polymers were obtained by chemical modifications of biocompatible polysaccharides such as dextran or pullulan. Attachment of hydrophobic segments (long alkyl chains and bile acid moieties) either along polysaccharide main chain or at its chain end provided several classes of amphiphilic polymers with ability to form self-organized structures by intra-or/and intermolecular hydrophobic interactions, with more or less well defined hydrophobic and hydrophilic microdomains. The self-organized structure properties such as size, morphology, polarity, and compactness of the microdomains can be tuned by an appropriate choice of the segments (blocks) chemical composition. The synthesized amphiphilic polysaccharides can have intrinsic biological activity with potential use as antibacterial agents or hypolipemic drugs, can encapsulate hydrophobic drugs and act as controlled drug delivery systems, or can interact with liposomes and improve their stability in biological environment.
