Table 1.
Characteristics of various polymers as vehicles for therapeutic contact lenses.
| Polymer | Characteristics | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| Propoxylated glyceryl triacrylate (PGT) | Polymer having multiple vinyl functionalities | [28,39] |
| Polycaprolactone (PCL) | Hydrophobic and FDA-approved bioresorbable polymer without toxic byproducts | [43,44] |
| Chitosan | Cationic polysaccharide polymer with good biocompatibility and biodegradability including lysozyme-related degradability | [47,48,49,124,125,126] |
| poly-(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) | Biocompatible, biodegradable and FDA-approved polymer that can change properties by varying the ratio of glycolic acid to lactic acid | [54,55] |
| Poly (d,l-lactide)-dextran (Dex-b-PLA) |
Core-shell structured nanoparticles consisting of PLA core and dextran outer shell | [31,61] |
| Poly-HEMA 1 | Hydrophilic hydrogel with high water content having excellent biocompatibility | [91,92] |
| Ethyl cellulose (EC) | Hydrophobic, biocompatible, non-biodegradable polymer | [98,99,100,101,102] |
| Fibrin | Protein-based natural biopolymer having biodegradability by plasmin-mediated fibrinolysis | [106,107,108] |
| Eudragit S-100 | pH-sensitive anionic copolymer having dissolving property in above pH 7.0 | [127,128] |
1 Hydroxyethylmethacrylate.