Poly lactic acid fibre based biodegradable stents and their functionalization techniques

Abstract

Commercial stents, especially metallic ones, present several disadvantages, and this gives rise to the necessity of producing stents with different materials, like natural polymers, in order to improve their biocompatibility and minimize the disadvantages of metallic ones. Another way to improve the biocompatibility and create a stent with less thrombogenic and inflammatory materials is through surface functionalization. This possibility allow to provide new functionalities to materials, like drug release or higher biocompatibility. One of the most used technique for stents functionalization is Layer by Layer (LBL). The principle of this technique is based on the alternating adsorption of materials with opposite charge or functional groups, in order to form integrated thin films. This review paper discusses some applications of natural-based polymers in stents, namely polylactic acid (PLA) for stent development and chitosan for biocompatible coatings of stents. Furthermore, some effective stent functionalization techniques will be discussed, namely Layer by Layer technique.