He Shicheng, Wei Lingling, Wang Guixue, Pugno Nicola M, Chen Qiang, Li Zhiyong
Biomechanics Laboratory, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
School of Food and Biological Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230601, China.
J Funct Biomater. 2024 May 17;15(5):135. doi: 10.3390/jfb15050135.
Biodegradable vascular stents (BVS) are deemed as great potential alternatives for overcoming the inherent limitations of permanent metallic stents in the treatment of coronary artery diseases. The current study aimed to comprehensively compare the mechanical behaviors of four poly(lactic acid) (PLA) BVS designs with varying geometries via numerical methods and to clarify the optimal BVS selection. Four PLA BVS (i.e., Absorb, DESolve, Igaki-Tamai, and Fantom) were first constructed. A degradation model was refined by simply including the fatigue effect induced by pulsatile blood pressures, and an explicit solver was employed to simulate the crimping and degradation behaviors of the four PLA BVS. The degradation dynamics here were characterized by four indices. The results indicated that the stent designs affected crimping and degradation behaviors. Compared to the other three stents, the DESolve stent had the greatest radial stiffness in the crimping simulation and the best diameter maintenance ability despite its faster degradation; moreover, the stent was considered to perform better according to a pilot scoring system. The current work provides a theoretical method for studying and understanding the degradation dynamics of the PLA BVS, and it could be helpful for the design of next-generation BVS.
可生物降解血管支架（BVS）被视为克服永久性金属支架在冠状动脉疾病治疗中固有局限性的极具潜力的替代方案。当前研究旨在通过数值方法全面比较四种具有不同几何形状的聚乳酸（PLA）BVS设计的力学行为，并阐明最佳BVS选择。首先构建了四种PLA BVS（即Absorb、DESolve、Igaki-Tamai和Fantom）。通过简单纳入脉动血压引起的疲劳效应来完善降解模型，并采用显式求解器模拟四种PLA BVS的压握和降解行为。此处的降解动力学由四个指标表征。结果表明，支架设计会影响压握和降解行为。与其他三种支架相比，DESolve支架在压握模拟中具有最大的径向刚度，尽管其降解速度更快，但直径维持能力最佳；此外，根据初步评分系统，该支架被认为表现更好。当前工作为研究和理解PLA BVS的降解动力学提供了一种理论方法，有助于下一代BVS的设计。
