ABSTRACT
For most biomedical applications, biodegradable hydrogels are favored over nondegradable gels since they degrade in clinically relevant time scales under relatively mild conditions. Compared to nondegradable hydrogels, degradable carriers do not require additional surgeries to recover the implanted gels. However, proper techniques for predicting hydrogel degradation rates are critical for successful application of these degradable systems as they facilitate the design of implants with optimal degradation profiles that result in proper rates of drug release or tissue regeneration, hence maximizing therapeutic effects. The fabrication and modeling of hydrolytically degradable hydrogels are well-developed. For example, West and Hubbell fabricated PLA-b-PEG-b-PLA hydrogels composed of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) block copolymers for protein release applications [1].
