Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 10 a
In vivo degradation (s.c., mouse) of injection-molded samples of P3HB,
compared to that of PLLA and PDLLA, and
b
to that of P3HB-9%3HV and P3HB-
22%3HV [55]
reaches about 20%. This might be explained by a slightly decreased polymer
crystallinity with increasing amount of 3HV, which overshadows the deceler-
ating effect caused by the increasing hydrophobicity. However, crystallinities
of P3HB-3HV copolymers are generally high and in the order of magnitude
of that of the P3HB homopolymer [65, 200] so that degradation rates can be
expected that are similar for both types of polymers.
