The Homopolymer Poly(3-hydroxyoctanoate) as a Matrix Material for Soft Tissue Engineering

The homopolymer poly(3-hydroxyoctanoate), produced from Pseudomonas mendocina with octanoate as a carbon feed, was studied as a potential biomaterial for soft tissue engineering, that is, as a cardiac patch and as matrices for skin tissue engineering. The polymer was fabricated into neat solvent-cast films of 5 and 10 wt Microstructural studies revealed the films as having a smooth surface topography with a root mean square value of 0.238 mu m. The films also possessed moderate hydrophilicity when compared to other monomers of the polyhydroxyalkanoate family. Stress-strain curves of the films obtained was typical of that of elastomeric polymers. This elastomeric and flexible nature of the films makes them promising candidates for the proposed applications. Biocompatibility studies with the human adult low calcium temperature keratinocytes (HaCaT) keratinocyte cell line showed that the films were able to support the attachment, differentiation, and maturation of the HaCaT cells. In vitro degradation studies over a period of 4 months showed that the water absorption and weight loss increased progressively with time for the films. The films underwent hydrolytic degradation initiated on the surface and also showed an aging effect. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 122: 3606-3617, 2011