In Vitro Stent Endothelialization

Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) is one of the major causes of morbidity that affects approximately 10 million people in the US. PAD is caused by atherosclerosis, which causes hardening and narrowing of the artery. It is hypothesized that, PAD reduces the Endothelial Cells (EC) ability to function optimally, and eventually leading to disease initiation and clinical complications. The preferred method of treatment of PAD is stent placement, which is a minimally invasive procedure. Bare Metal Stent can lessen the rate of restenosis by preventing elastic recoil and cell growth. However, in-stent restenosis remains one of the major drawbacks of this procedure. Drug-Eluting Stents (DES) has proven to be effective in reducing the risk of late restenosis, and also to reduce the growth of endothelial cells. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop a benchtop model to study the impact of stents on EC growth and confluency. Briefly, silicone tubes with arterial geometry and similar mechanical compliance were created and were prepared for cell seeding. A stent was deployed inside the scaffold, the balloon was inflated to the appropriate pressure. The inner surface of the tubes was then seeded with rat aortic ECs. The bioreactor was then placed inside an incubator for a period of 48 hours. The result demonstrated that ECs successfully attached to the inner surface of the scaffold and around stent. This system can be potentially used to examine EC growth and consequently their responses to DES.