Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular ischemic diseases seriously affect human health. Endovascular stent placement is an effective treatment but always leads to in-stent restenosis (ISR). Gene-eluting stent, which combines gene therapy with stent implantation, is a potential method to prevent ISR. In this study, an efficient gene-eluting stent was designed on the basis of one new nucleic acid delivery system to decrease the possibility of ISR. The reduction-responsive branched nucleic acid vector (SKP) with low cytotoxicity was first synthesized via ring-opening reaction. The impressive in vitro transfection performances of SKP were proved using luciferase reporter, enhanced green fluorescent protein plasmid, and vascular endothelial growth factor plasmid (pVEGF). Subsequently, SKP/pVEGF complexes were coated on the surfaces of pretreated clinical stents to construct gene-eluting stents (S-SKP/pVEGF). Antirestenosis performance of S-SKP/pVEGF was evaluated via implanting stents into rabbit aortas. S-SKP/pVEGF could lead to the localized upregulation of VEGF proteins, improve the progress of re-endothelialization, and inhibit the development of ISR in vivo. Such efficient pVEGF-eluting stent with responsive nucleic acid delivery systems is very promising to prevent in-stent restenosis of cerebrovascular diseases.
Keywords: VEGF; endothelialization; gene therapy; in-stent restenosis; polycation.