BIODEGRADABLE POLYURETHANES

The review summarizes recent progress in the development of enzymatica lly degradable polymers. Such polymers are based on amino acids, oligo peptides, oligosaccharides and synthetic oligomers. An enzymatically d egradable bond can be located either in a side chain or in the main ba ckbone of the polymer. These materials posses special physical-mechani cal properties and can be used as endoprostheses with optimal degradat ion periods or as carriers of biologically active compounds in medicin e and biology. The experimental results, showing the usage perspective ness for biodegradable polyurethanes as carriers of biologically activ e substances (including medical drugs) for the depot-forms formation, are presented.