Biodegradation and Metabolism of Vinyl-Backbone Polymers

Vinyl-backbone polymers are commonly used in biomedical applications, but the biodegradability and metabolizability of vinyl backbones have rarely been investigated. We examine the degradation and metabolism of various vinyl-backbone polymers in the presence of chemical oxidants in rat liver microsomes and in human liver cells by using GPC, ATR-FTIR, GC-MS, and LC/MS/MS metabolomic analyses with ¹³C-labeled polymers. In biological degradation, only vinyl-backbone polymers with neighboring O or N atoms can be degraded and metabolized into two-carbon-unit molecules, acetic acid or coenzyme A, similar to the fatty acid metabolism, while most vinyl polymers investigated show a certain degree of degradability in chemical degradation. Metabolic profiling of ¹³C-labeled polymers reveals that vinyl-backbone polymers with neighboring O or N atoms can be degraded and utilized as fuel molecules or building blocks for the biosynthesis of other metabolites.