Preparation of core shell type polyacrylate hydroxyapatite drug carriers by controlled polymerization and their characterizations

Meso-porous hydroxyapatite (MHAp) has superior properties such as excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability and bioactivity, as well as its non-toxic, large surface area and high loading capacity make it a good drug carrier system. However, the brittle nature of MHAp restricts its usage applications. Composite MHAp obtained by various modification processes with biocompatible polymers, which eliminates the disadvantages of its hard and brittle structure. In this thesis study, MHAp prepared using hydrothermal method, which is modified by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) that is one of the controlled polymerization. Firstly, MHAp was converted to an ATRP macro-initiator. The bi-functional initiator obtained by reaction between 3-aminopropyl triethoxysilane and bromoisobutyryl bromide, which bounded to both the MHAp surface and also controlled polymerization was performed on the C-Br bond at the end. In the second part of the study, MHAp surface was modified by surface initiated ATRP of poly (ethylene glycol) methacrylate (PEGMA), N- [3- (Dimethylamino) propyl] methacrylamide (DMAPMA), Fluorescent o-methacrylate (FMA) monomers. FT-IR, XPS, SEM, DLS, Zeta potential and TGA analyzes were performed for structural, thermal, morphological characterization of all synthesized structures. As a result of the analysis, it was proved that the modification procedures were performed successfully. In the final part, drug release and cell culture studies were performed. Doxorubicin (DOX), an anti-cancer drug, was used as a model drug. Saos-2 human osteosarcoma cell line was used in cell culture studies. According to the results, polyacrylate-hydroxyapatite scaffolds were found to be a good drug delivery system for DOX.