Whang Minji, Yu Hyeonji, Kim Jungwook
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Sogang University, 35 Baekbeom-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul 04107, Korea.
Polymers (Basel). 2021 Mar 17;13(6):929. doi: 10.3390/polym13060929.
Owing to its superior water absorption capacity, superabsorbent polymer (SAP) based on a poly (acrylic acid) network is extensively used in industrial products such as diapers, wound dressing, or surgical pads. However, because SAP does not degrade naturally, a massive amount of non-degradable waste is discarded daily, posing serious environmental problems. Considering that diapers are the most widely used end-product of SAP, we created one that is degradable by a human urinary enzyme. We chose three enzyme candidates, all of which have substrates that were modified with polymerizable groups to be examined for cleavable crosslinkers of SAP. We found that the urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) substrate, end-modified with acrylamide groups at sufficient distances from the enzymatic cleavage site, can be successfully used as a cleavable crosslinker of SAP. The resulting SAP slowly degraded over several days in the aqueous solution containing uPA at a physiological concentration found in human urine and became shapeless in ~30 days.
基于聚（丙烯酸）网络的高吸水性聚合物（SAP）因其卓越的吸水能力，被广泛应用于尿布、伤口敷料或手术垫等工业产品中。然而，由于SAP不会自然降解，每天都会产生大量不可降解的废物，这带来了严重的环境问题。考虑到尿布是SAP使用最广泛的最终产品，我们研发出了一种可被人体尿液酶降解的尿布。我们选择了三种酶候选物，它们的底物都用可聚合基团进行了修饰，以检测其作为SAP可裂解交联剂的性能。我们发现，在距酶切位点足够远的位置用丙烯酰胺基团进行末端修饰的尿激酶型纤溶酶原激活剂（uPA）底物，可以成功用作SAP的可裂解交联剂。所得的SAP在含有生理浓度uPA的人尿水溶液中，经过几天会缓慢降解，约30天后会变得不成形。
