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Biodegradation of copoly( L ‐aspartic acid/ L ‐glutamic acid) in vitro
Author(s) -
Hayashi Toshio,
Iwatsuki Makoto
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
biopolymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 125
eISSN - 1097-0282
pISSN - 0006-3525
DOI - 10.1002/bip.360290310
Subject(s) - comonomer , chemistry , papain , copolymer , aspartic acid , polymer , glutamic acid , degradation (telecommunications) , side chain , kinetics , anhydrous , biodegradation , polymer chemistry , organic chemistry , nuclear chemistry , amino acid , biochemistry , enzyme , telecommunications , physics , quantum mechanics , computer science
The preparation of copolypeptides consisting of L ‐aspartic acid and L ‐glutamic acid was performed to determine the effects of copolymer composition and sequential distributions on the rate of degradation by papain in a PECF (pseudoextracellular fluid) at pH 4.75 and 7.40, at 37.0°C, to simulate in vivo polymer degradation. Random copolymers consisting of β‐benzyl L ‐aspartate and γ‐benzyl L ‐glutamate were synthesized by the N‐carboxyanhydride method. Water‐soluble copolymers were obtained by successive reactions of side chains by anhydrous HBr treatment. All the samples were found to be degraded by random chain scission with papain. Further, the degradation data for the samples followed the Michaelis–Menten rate law, being the first order in papain concentration. The nature of side chains are important to the rate of degradation by papain and it was controlled by the comonomer composition as well as the sequential distribution of comonomers in the copolymer chains.