Physical Chemistry of Macromolecules at Tor Vergata University

Poly(vinyl alcohol), PVA, hydrogels have been shown to be attractive systems for wide pharmaceutical applications due to its inherent non-toxicity, non carcinogenity, good biocompatibility and suitable physical properties.
The activity of our group has been focused on the development of a viable drug delivery system based on telechelic PVA microspheres.

Telechelic PVA originates from the specific and quantitative oxidation of the head-to-head sequences of the polymer chain made of 1, 2 glycolic moiety by means sodium periodate. Shorter PVA macromers bearing an aldehydic group at each end are used as crosslinker agent to synthesize micro-nanospheres. Since the formation of the hydrogel does not require crosslinking agents and does not involve any residual monomer, micro-nanoparticle can be suitable for controlled drug delivery as the biocompatibility of the starting PVA is preserved.

These systems can be easily obtained as wall-to wall chemical hydrogels. In this form they are suitable to be characterized by means of dynamic light scattering. Other useful methodologies for the structural characterization of this systems are atomic force microscopy and confocal microscopy.