Background
An important limitation of polymer-coated vascular stents, especially drug eluting, is slow endothelialization, which has been suggested as a potential cause of late stent thrombosis. Active capture of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) on endovascular prostheses to accelerate endothelial coverage is thereby of growing interest.
Method
Surface-enhanced PPMC was fabricated using poly(1,8-octanediol-co-citric acid) or POC polymer and poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) or PLGA microparticles encapsulating vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) ( Fig. 1 ). Surface enhancement was achieved by surface conjugation of anti-CD34 antibody and fibronectin. The EPC capture of PPMC was compared to non-surface-enhanced POC, a new polymer and to a more traditional poly( l -lactic acid) or PLLA polymer materials.
