APRIL 2008: NEXT
HYBRID
HEART STENT
Tiny, stainless steel lattice tubes have been propping coronary
arteries open since the 1980s, but never without triggering
reactions in some patients that are worse than untreated heart
disease. In 2001, scientists began coating stents with drugs to
help prevent heart attack-inducing blood clots. But 30,000 out
of the 6 million patients worldwide who receive them still die.
“Metal is inherently not biocompatible,” says Dr.
Kenton Gregory, director of Oregon Medical Laser Center at
Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland. More than a
decade ago, Gregory decided he needed to go back to nature if
stent technology was to move forward. Gregory, whose work at
the center has received 22 patents and $25 million in grants,
developed a coating modeled after the artery wall’s own
lining: a protein called elastin. As the name suggests, the
protein stretches without breaking and molds well to any object
it coats, even metal tubes 1.5 mm in diameter and 12 mm in
length. Most importantly, the body won’t reject it.
Gregory and his team at OMLC completed tests on domestic pigs
last fall with “extremely successful” results and
plan to start human trials in Brazil later this year. Once the
design gets FDA approval — Gregory expects within two
years — he’ll begin marketing the new device in
hopes that this “metal, human-protein hybrid” will
succeed where lesser stents have failed. Lives saved by
listening to nature. EVAN CAEL
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