Development of 3D Printed Biodegradable, Entirely X-ray Visible Stents for Rabbit Carotid Artery Implantation.

Biodegradable stents have been considered a promising strategy for the endovascular treatment (EVT) of cerebrovascular diseases. The visualization of biodegradable stents is of significance during the implantation and long-term follow-up. Endowing the biodegradable stents with X-ray radiopacity can overcome the weakness of intrinsic radioparency of polymers. Hence, this work focused on the development of an entirely X-ray visible biodegradable stent (PCL-KIO 3 ) composed of polycaprolactone (PCL) and potassium iodate via physical blending and 3D printing for cerebrovascular application. The PCL-KIO 3 stents were implanted into the rabbit carotid artery to evaluate the imaging performance in vivo and biosafety. The in vitro X-ray imaging results showed that the introduction of potassium iodate made the 3D printed PCL stents visualizable under X-ray. So far, there is inadequate study about polymeric stent visualization in vivo. Therefore, the entirely X-ray visible stents were implanted into the rabbit carotid artery to evaluate the biosafety and visibility performance. In the process of stent deployment, the visualization of PCL-KIO 3 stent effectively help us understand the position and dilation status of stents. At 6-month follow-up, the PCL-KIO 3 stent could still be observed under X-ray and maintained excellent vessel patency. To sum up, this study demonstrated that PCL-KIO 3 stent may provide a robust strategy for biodegradable stent visualization. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.