A Novel Intravascular Stents Covered with Human Amniotic Membrane

To blockade or inhibit the interactions between the circulating blood cells and the vascular cells may be essential after balloon inflation and stents deployment for reducing or preventing restenosis. Amniotic basal lamina contains large quantities of proteoglycans which are thought to perform a barrier function. So we tried to construct two types of intravascular stents covered with human amniotic membrane: externally amniotic membrane covered stents and internally amniotic membrane covered stents. The histopathological examination showed amniotic membrane tissue could be preserved at -80degC for months and kept a whole tissue structure. The stretch stress tests showed that the cryopreserved amniotic membrane had a good-sized extensibility and was an excellent elastic membrane material. The hemolysis texts showed that the hemolysis ratio was lower than 5%, conforming to the requirement of biomaterials. So the human amniotic membrane was an excellent membrane material when incorporated into metal stents. It was a feasible method to fabricate the covered intravascular stents with human amniotic membrane.