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EUROPEAN POLYMER JOURNAL European Polymer Journal 43 (2007) 3500–3509 /locate/europolj Poly[(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylamide-co-(hydroxyethyl- methacrylate))] thermoresponsive microspheres: An accurate method based on solute exclusion technique to determine the volume phase transition temperature G. Fundueanu a,b, M. Constantin b, F. Bortolotti a, R. Cortesi a,*, P. Ascenzi c, E. Menegatti a a Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Ferrara, I-44100 Ferrara, Italy b Department of Bioactive and Biocompatible Polymers, ‘‘Petru Poni’’ Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, 700487 Iassy, Romania c Department of Biology and Interdepartmental Laboratory for Electron Microscopy, University ‘‘Roma Tre’’, I-00146 Rome, Italy Received 24 January 2007; received in revised form 11 May 2007; accepted 22 May 2007 Available online 2 June 2007 Abstract Poly[(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylamide-co-(hydroxyethylmethacrylate))] [poly(NIPAAm-co-AAm-co-HEMA)] copolymer was synthesized as a new thermoresponsive material possessing a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) around 37 C in phosphate buffer, pH 7.4, at a solution concentration of 1%, w/v. The influ