Thanks to the continuous progress of tissue engineering, the opportunity to overcome the main limits of traditional medicine is becoming more and more concrete. By a targeted study of biomaterials and their properties, it is possible to find ad hoc solutions for the fabrication of tissue engineered scaffolds. More in details, poly(butylene succinate) PBS is a biocompatible synthetic polymer already investigated for biomedical applications, but characterized by a high degree of crystallinity, which leads to long degradation times and mechanical properties often not suitable in the field of soft tissue engineering. In the present study, a PBS-based copolymer containing 30 mol% of dithiodipropionic co-units, P(BSBDTDP), was synthesized by two-step melt polycondensation. The comonomeric unit is characterized by the presence of -S-S- bond, potentially capable of improving both biocompatibility and biodegradability with respect to the homopolymer. After synthesis, 3D-mats and films were obtained by electrospinning and compression moulding, respectively, and then subjected to molecular, thermal and mechanical characterization. In addition, in view of a possible application in soft tissue engineering, enzymatic biodegradation studies and in vitro biocompatibility tests, using NIH-3T3 cell line, were also carried out. The results obtained show that through copolymerization solid-state properties could be nicely tailored. More in details, compared to PBS, P(BSBDTDP) is characterized by a lower crystallinity degree and mechanical properties typical of soft tissues, maintaining at the same time the good thermal stability of the parent homopolymer. In addition, copolymeric scaffold better supports cell adhesion and proliferation, undergoing degradation in biological environment slightly faster than its PBS homologous.

由于组织工程学的不断进步，克服传统医学主要局限的机会变得越来越具体。通过对生物材料及其特性进行有针对性的研究，可以找到专门的材料。组织工程支架制造的解决方案。更详细地讲，聚丁二酸丁二醇酯PBS是一种生物相容性合成聚合物，已经针对生物医学应用进行了研究，但其结晶度高，导致较长的降解时间和机械性能，通常不适用于软组织工程领域。在本研究中，通过两步熔融缩聚反应合成了包含30摩尔％的二硫代二丙酸共聚单元P（BSBDTDP）的PBS基共聚物。共聚单体单元的特征在于存在-SS-键，其相对于均聚物潜在地能够改善生物相容性和生物降解性。合成后，分别通过静电纺丝和压缩成型获得3D垫和膜，然后对其进行分子处理，热和机械特性。此外，鉴于在软组织工程中的可能应用，酶促生物降解研究和还使用NIH-3T3细胞系进行了体外生物相容性测试。获得的结果表明，通过共聚可以很好地调节固态性质。更详细地讲，与PBS相比，P（BSBDTDP）的特征在于较低的结晶度和软组织的典型机械性能，同时保持了母体均聚物的良好热稳定性。另外，共聚支架更好地支持细胞粘附和增殖，在生物环境中经历降解的速度略快于其同源的PBS。