IN VITRO CYTOTOXICITY EVALUATION OF FUNCTIONAL PEG-PDMA BLOCK COPOLYMER IN LIVER HEPG2 CELLS

The development of matrices to control the release of drugs into specific sites in the human body is a perspective biomedical application of polymeric materials. The aim of this work was to evaluate the cytotoxicity of a newly synthesized functional block copolymer of composition PEO-b-PDMA for application in nanosized drug delivery systems. The toxicological effect of the copolymer was studied by in vitro exposure of human liver HepG2 cell line. Toxicity was examined by two methods - MTT test and Neutral red assay following the exposure to the copolymer in the concentration range from 1 - 1000 mu g/ml for 24 and 48 h. It was shown that no toxic outcome was observed in the concentration range from 1 - 1000 mu g/ml, even after 48h of incubation. The results from the study demonstrated a good safety profile for the investigated hydrophilic PEO-PDMA block copolymer.