Adjustable paclitaxel release kinetics and its efficacy to inhibit smooth muscle cells proliferation

Despite the success of drug-eluting stents in the field of interventional cardiology, very little work has been reported on the role of drug (paclitaxel) release kinetics on smooth muscle cell proliferation. This paper demonstrates how paclitaxel release from degradable polymers was successfully tailored from fast release rate to moderate and slow by changing the matrix composition. Cell counting and proliferation assays were employed to investigate the efficacy of each type of release kinetics in preventing human coronary artery smooth muscle cells proliferation. The fast release kinetics presented excellent inhibition immediately but may affect the re-endothelialization process. In this study, the moderate release kinetics appeared to be the best choice to prevent cell proliferation with consequently less effect on re-endothelialization. The slow release kinetics showed little inhibition in the early days but may be beneficial in the long term as a result of its sustained release.