TABLE 2.

Degradation behaviors of some of the polymers that are commonly investigated in tissue engineering.

Polymer	Abbreviation	Degradation modality	Degradation time
Poly (carboxyphenoxypropane-sebacic acid)	P(CPP-SA)	Surface degradation (Tamada & Langer, 1993)	6–8 weeks (Katti et al., 2002)
Poly (ε-caprolactone)	PCL	Bulk degradation without autocatalysis (Lam et al., 2008)	2–4 years, depending on molecular weight (Woodruff & Hutmacher, 2010)
Poly (D,L-lactic acid)	PDLLA	Bulk degradation with autocatalysis (Therin et al., 1992)	12–16 months (Nair & Laurencin, 2007)
Poly (lactide-co-glycolide)	PLGA	Bulk degradation (Tamada & Langer, 1993) with autocatalysis (Therin et al., 1992)	1–6 months, depending on co-polymer ratio (Nair & Laurencin, 2007)