Rohan Ravindranath
St. Michael’s Hospital, Canada
Title: Using trichlorosilane surface chemistry to capture endothelial cells: A new approach to overcome restenosis in patients with cardiac stent implants
Biography
Biography: Rohan Ravindranath
Abstract
Stenosis is a symptom of coronary artery disease (CAD), and is caused by narrowing of arteries in the heart. Over the past several decades, medical implants such as cardiac stents have been deployed in patients to counter stenosis. In patients with stent implants, narrowing of the artery can reoccur (restenosis) due to an immune response towards the implanted ‘foreign’ device. Restenosis is a major health concern for patients who have undergone heart surgery for CAD. Recently, there have been promising new approaches to combat restenosis. One such approach is to promote re-endothelialization of the implanted stent surface by capturing circulating endothelial cells in blood. This is hypothesized to help reduce the stent-induced immune response launched by the body. Our investigation involved developing a novel proof-of-concept cardiac stent, with the ability to bind endothelial cells. Steel coupons were coated with a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) made of benzothiosulfonate (BTS). Whole anti-human CD144 (VE-cadherin) antibodies were immobilized on the steel surface, which was then incubated in a cell culture of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) for several days, in vitro. The cells that bound to the steel were fixed and stained with fluorescently labeled anti-CD34. Using fluorescence microscopy it was evident that the cells were able to adhere and proliferate on the coated steel. These results demonstrate that re-endothelialization of the stent surface was induced