Novel glass-like coatings for cardiovascular implant application: Preparation, characterization and cellular...

Glass coatings are of great interest for biomedical implant application due to their excellent properties. Nowadays they are used in different fields including drug delivery, for bone tissue regeneration or as implant. Nevertheless they can only be applied using high temperatures. Therefore their usage in the field of cardiovascular implant application is still restricted. Accordingly new developments in this field have been carried out to overcome this problem and to coat cardiovascular implants. Here, novel glass-like coatings have been developed and applied using sol-gel technique at moderate temperatures. The biocompatibility and selectivity have been analyzed using human endothelial cells. The obtained results clarify that the developed compositions can either promote or suppress endothelial cell growth only by altering the sintering atmosphere. A later application as thin layer on cardiovascular implants like stents is conceivable.