In vivo anticoagulation of titanium oxide film coated coronary artery stent prepared by plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition

Application of coronary stent has successful saved thousands of patients' lives. However insufficient biocompatibility for the stent material such as stainless steel and TiNi alloy has caused the complications such as thrombogenicity and re-stenosis. Surface coatings have been suggested to decrease the thrombogenicity of metallic coronary stent. Our previous studies of Ti-O thin films synthesized using plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition (PIIID) have shown that Ti-O films possess superior blood compatibility to the conventional clinically-applied cardiovascular biomaterials. In the work described here we focused our attention on the in vivo anticoagulation behavior of Ti-O thin film coated coronary stent. Coronary stent made from stainless steel were coated by Ti-O thin film and then were implanted into rabbits ventral aoeta for different periods from 4 weeks to 20 weeks under conditions of no anticoagulant. The results of the implantations showed no thrombus formation on the surfaces of the Ti-O thin film coated stents, although serious coagulation had occurred on the surfaces of unmodified stent.