If you have a stent keeping one of your arteries open, it's probably in your best interest to know about how long it might last.
Michigan Technological University researchers are looking into that exact question. An interdisciplinary senior design team came up with some new ways to replicate what happens to stents when they are placed in human blood vessels.
Most other research on stents has been taken from large animal studies, but the Tech team used rats as their test subjects instead. They did a test run to see how small wires like those in stents changed naturally over time in rats first, and found that the stent material became coated with a layer of calcium and phosphorus, followed by a layer of cell tissue.
Next, they duplicated conditions in human blood, by mixing fibrin and a cell culture medium, creating a circulation-like flow, and leaving the wires in that. The results were exactly the same as in the rats, which suggests the fibrin mixture could be used as a test platform instead of using live animals.
"The rat model could help reduce reliance on large animals. And the students' in vitro model might make it possible to reduce the use of animals overall," says Jeremy Goldman, an associate professor of biomedical engineering and the team's co-advisor.
The stent project was backed by Boston Scientific, which designs and manufactures medical devices including stents. Goldman says the company has been impressed by the senior team's work.
"They've done cutting-edge work. For undergraduates to accomplish this shows a high level of effort and dedication," he says.
Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Jeremy Goldman, Michigan Technological University
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