ABSTRACT
The chemical incorporation of biologically active compounds into synthetic biodegradable biomaterials was successfully synthesized by using nitric oxide derivatives (e.g., 4-amino-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxy) as the biochemical agents and synthetic aliphatic polyesters like polyglycolide as the biodegradable biomaterials. The resulting new biomaterial was characterized and its in vitro hydrolytic degradation property was studied to examine the release profiles of the chemically incorporated nitric oxide derivative from polyglycolide. The biological activity of this new class of biodegradable biomaterial was tested by examining its ability to retard the proliferation of human smooth muscle cell in vitro. It was found that this new class of biologically active biodegradable biomaterial has indeed one of the well-known biological functions of nitric oxide: retardation of the proliferation of smooth muscle cells. The potential biomedical applications of this new biomaterial include the treatment of hyperplasia in cardiovascular disorders, promoting wound healing in healing-impaired patients, and nitric oxide-related diseases.
