Studies on thermoresponsive polymers: Phase behaviour, drug delivery and biomedical applications

Abstract

The present review aims to highlight the applications of thermoresponsive polymers. Thermo-responsive polymers show a sharp change in properties upon a small or modest change in temperature. This behaviour can be utilized for the preparation of so-called ‘smart’ drug delivery systems, which mimic biological response behaviour to a certain extent. Such materials are used in the development of several applications, such as drug delivery systems, tissue engineering scaffolds and gene delivery. Advances in this field are particularly relevant to applications in the areas of regenerative medicine and drug delivery. This review addresses summary of the main applications of thermoresponsive polymers which are categorized based on their 3-dimensional structure; hydrogels, interpenetrating networks, micelles, films and particles. The physico-chemical behaviour underlying the phase transition is also discussed in brief.

Keywords

• Thermoresponsive polymers
• Phase transition
• Drug delivery
• Tissue engineering