Self-assembly of hyperbranched polymers and its biomedical applications.
Hyperbranched polymers (HBPs) are highly branched macromolecules with a three-dimensional dendritic architecture. Due to their unique topological structure and interesting physical/chemical properties, HBPs have attracted wide attention from both academia and industry. In this paper, the recent developments in HBP self-assembly and their biomedical applications have been comprehensively reviewed. Many delicate supramolecular structures from zero-dimension (0D) to three-dimension (3D), such as micelles, fibers, tubes, vesicles, membranes, large compound vesicles and physical gels, have been prepared through the solution or interfacial self-assembly of amphiphilic HBPs. In addition, these supramolecular structures have shown promising applications in the biomedical areas including drug delivery, protein purification/detection/delivery, gene transfection, antibacterial/antifouling materials and cytomimetic chemistry. Such developments promote the interdiscipline researches among surpramolecular chemistry, biomedical chemistry, nano-technology and functional materials.
Zhou
Yongfeng
Y
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, P. R. China.
Huang
Wei
W
Liu
Jinyao
J
Zhu
Xinyuan
X
Yan
Deyue
D
D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D008823:Micelles; D015394:Molecular Structure; D036103:Nanotechnology; D011108:Polymers / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*
D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D008823:Micelles; D011108:Polymers