A ferulic acid (FA)-eluting system for biodegradable magnesium stent: Cells response of HUVECs

A new drug-eluting system was designed for biodegradable magnesium stents, in which ferulic acid (FA) was used as drug due to its promotion function to endothelial cells and PHBHHx as drug delivery due to its biodegradability and biocompatibility. A 5 and 10% FA were added in PHBHHx to prepare FA containing PHBHHX films. The cell adhesion, spreading and proliferation on these films was investigated in order to assess cell response of HUVECs. It was also found that FA enhanced the adhesion, spreading and proliferation of HUVECs in a dose-dependent manner. Cell viability after H2 O2 injury and NO production of HUVECs were also studied. The results indicated that FA effectively inhibited H2 O2 -induced injury and promotes NO production. It was also shown that alkali treatment improved the cell adhesion, spreading and proliferation while the treatment reduces the FA release and in turn reduces the inhibition on H2 O2 -induced injury and NO production. However, alkali treatment itself had no influence on the H2 O2 induced injure and NO production. The tensile shear strength between the FA containing coating and Mg substrate was also tested. All results demonstrated that FA containing PHBHHx films exhibited strong promotion to the endothelialization and could be a choice for surface modification of magnesium stent.