Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 7
Preparation of Amylose-Polymer
Inclusion Complexes in Phosphorylase-
Catalyzed Enzymatic Polymerization
(“Vine-Twining Polymerization”)
7.1
Outlines of Vine-Twining Polymerization
Amylose is a well-known host molecule that readily forms inclusion
complexes with slender guest molecules having relatively lower
molecular weight by hydrophobic interaction between guest
molecules and the cavity of amylose [1-7]. However, little had been
reported regarding the formation of inclusion complexes composed
of amylose and polymeric compounds [8-14]. The principal difficulty
for incorporating polymeric materials into the cavity of amylose is
that the driving force for the binding is only due to weak hydrophobic
interactions. Amylose, therefore, does not have the sufficient ability
to include the long chains of polymeric guests into its cavity.
By means of the phosphorylase-catalyzed enzymatic
polymerization of Glc-1-P for direct construction of amylose as
described in the earlier chapters, the method for the preparation of
inclusion complexes composed of amylose and synthetic polymers
has been developed. The representation of this reaction system is
similar to the way that vines of plants grow twining around a rod.
Accordingly, it has been proposed that this polymerization method for
