In vivo degradation study of polyvinylidene fluoride/polybutylene succinate/modified organic montmorillonite nanocomposite films implanted in the gastrointestinal tract.

A duodenal barrier treatment implanted in gastrointestinal (GI) tract prevents the direct contact of food with the duodenal wall, which helps control the plasma glucose by manipulating the intestinal hormone and insulin secretion. Duodenal barrier material design has to withstand the stress of enterogastric peristalsis and be degradable to avoid damaging the intestinal tissue during its removal when the treatment finished. Most of the biodegradable polymer based implanted materials in the digestive tract were failed to withstand the erosion by gastric acid and intestinal juice. In this regards, composites from polybutylene succinate (PBS) shows weaker stability while used in digestive track, but it could improve towards less prone to sticking to the intestinal wall in the digestive tract through reduce the incidences of infection and inflammation while mixed with poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF). Moreover, addition of nanosized additives like montmorillonite to polymer nanocomposites can offer versatile mechanical stability and sustainable degradation. Therefore, in this study, a polymer nanocomposite with degradability and high mechanical properties was prepared by blending (PVDF with biodegradable PBS and organic montmorillonite (OMMT). The nanocomposite with 3 wt% OMMT (PVDF90/PBS10/OMMT3wt%) exhibited the highest tensile strength of 62.61 MPa, which exceeds the tensile strength required for application to soft tissues (46.5 MPa) due to uniform distribution of OMMT. The result showed that the PBS films degraded much faster than the nanocomposite film did in the duodenum and stomach. The rates of weight loss of the nanocomposite in stomach and duodenum were 1.88% and 0.88%, respectively, which indicated that the degradation rate of the nanocomposite film is faster in the stomach than in the duodenum. The nanocomposite maintained a high tensile strength of 60.85 MPa after one month of implantation. Moreover, histological examination revealed mild inflammation of tissue and negligible adverse effects. The in vivo degradation test suggests that the PVDF/PBS/OMMT nanocomposite prepared in this study have the potential for application as a biodegradable duodenal barrier. • The poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/poly(butylene succinate) (PBS)/organic montmorillonite (OMMT) nanocomposite film has been prepared. • The biodegradation of composited film has been studied in the stomach and duodenum. • The nanocomposite file exhibited less degradation and maintained the mechanical strength in GI tract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]