Degradable poly(ester amide)s from olive oil for biomedical applications

Poly(ester amide)s (PEAs) are polymers with both ester and amide bonds in the polymer backbone offering a combination of desirable properties such as degradability of esters and physio-chemical properties of amides that are attractive for biomedical applications. Olive oil (OO) is known to possess anti-inflammatory properties and offers beneficial health effects. Thus, the aim of this work was to develop a novel class of resorbable PEAs from OO for biomedical applications. Cross-linked PEAs were synthesized by melt condensation followed by curing. The chain length of the diacid, molar ratio of the reactants, and curing conditions were systematically varied to yield a library of polymers with tunable properties. FTIR and 1H-NMR revealed the presence of ester and amide bonds in the polymers. Properties such as the water contact angle and storage modulus (which is directly related to the cross-linking density) increased with the increase in the chain length of the diacid as well as the curing time and with the decrease in the molar ratio of diacid to the functionalized precursor. Hydrolytic degradation studies showed that polymers had a wide range of degradation that spanned ≈ 12 to 50% in 1 week. The dye release followed the Korsmeyer-Peppas semi-empirical equation. In vitro cell studies showed that the polymers were cytocompatible. Thus, this work presents PEAs from OO that are promising resorbable biomaterials for biomedical applications.