Cell attachment and growth on films prepared from poly(depsipeptide-co-lactide) having various functional groups.

In tissue engineering related to the regeneration of damaged or lost tissue, excellent biodegradable materials are desired as temporary scaffolds to support cell growth and then disappear with the progress of tissue regeneration. We previously synthesized biodegradable poly(depsipeptide-co-lactide), poly[(Glc-Asp)-co-LA], and poly[(Glc-Lys)-co-LA] with reactive side-chain groups. In this study, to evaluate the utility of these copolymers as functional scaffolds for tissue regeneration, the effects of reactive and ionic side-chain groups on cell attachment and growth were investigated using copolymer films with various numbers of carboxyl or amino groups. Poly[(Glc-Lys)-co-LA] and poly[(Glc-Asp)-co-LA] films having appropriate positive or negative charges exhibited higher cell attachment ability than did poly-L-lactide. Good cell growth was observed on the copolymer films. During cell culture, the copolymer films exhibited higher degradation rates related to the depsipeptide content. Biodegradable polymer matrices with reactive surfaces for cell growth successfully were prepared using copolymers with various numbers of depsipeptide units. Varying the depsipeptide unit numbers in the copolymer could change the degradation rate of these matrices. Copyright 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.