Advances in Physiologically Relevant Actuation of Shape Memory Polymers for Biomedical Applications

Abstract The synergistic effects of the combination of hyperthermia and chemotherapy have implicated the critical role of hyperthermia temperatures in clinical practice. Temperature sensitive polymers, which are capable of exhibiting controllable shapes under various temperature actuations, have attracted considerable interests for designing intelligent medical devices. While shape memory performances have been demonstrated with a wide range of temperatures, here we focus our discussion on shape memory polymers with physiologically relevant application temperatures and proper shape recovery speed. This review presents an overview of body-friendly thermo-responsive shape memory polymers, including commonly used biopolymers, various actuation methods, and their potential biomedical applications.