Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 21, 2026
Imaging In-Stent Restenosis: An Inexpensive, Reliable, and Rapid Preclinical Model
Published on: September 14, 2009
A polyhydroxybutyrate biodegradable stent: preliminary experience in the rabbit
M Unverdorben1, A Spielberger, M Schywalsky
1Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Heinz-Meise-Strasse 100, D-36199 Rotenburg a. d. Fulda, Germany.
Purpose:
The lifelong persistence of foreign bodies within the arteries may contribute to restenosis. Thus, biodegradable devices might decrease recurrence rates.
Methods:
Eleven polyhydroxybutyrate biodegradable stents and 13 tantalum stents were implanted into the iliac arteries of New Zealand white rabbits for up to 30 weeks. After killing the animals, the specimens were harvested, fixed in formalin, processed in paraffin, and stained.
Results:
Polyhydroxybutyrate instigated intense inflammatory and proliferative reactions with an increase in collagen (2.4- to 8-fold vs native segments), thrombosis and in-stent lumen narrowing (375.5-606.6 mm vs 655.6 +/- 268.8 mm in native segments). The elastic membranes were destroyed in all specimens. The tantalum stents increased the in-stent lumen progressively (769.7 +/- 366.6 mm vs 1309.9 +/- 695.3 mm), penetrated the external elastic membrane, and increased mural collagen content (6- to 8.6-fold vs native segments). Neither restenoses nor thromboses occurred.
Conclusions:
In the rabbit iliac artery, polyhydroxybutyrate stents caused intensive inflammatory vascular reactions which ban them from clinical use.
