Tyramine functionalization of poly(glycerol sebacate) increases the elasticity of the polymer.

Poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS) is an elastomer used widely in tissue engineering studies due to good biocompatibility. Hereby we report a tyramine functionalized PGS called PGS-TA. Tyramine adds a stronger physical bonding capability to PGS-TA. Tensile tests showed that the softness and toughness of the material were similar to PGS. However, PGS-TA demonstrated 16-folds increase of elastic deformations compared to PGS processed under identical conditions. The studies demonstrated that the viability, and metabolic activity of baboon smooth muscle cells were the same as those on tissue culture polystyrene. Porous subcutaneous implants of PGS-TA substantially degraded over two weeks, showing good biodegradability and biocompatibility. We expect PGS-TA to be useful for applications in tissues and organs that are subjected to large reversible mechanical deformations.