Reviewed by Lexie CornerMar 22 2024
According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular disease (CVD) claims around 18 million lives each year, making it one of the leading causes of death globally. As the population ages, the number of patients with CVDs, diabetes, obesity, and complex vascular lesions is expected to rise, searching for efficient treatments is increasingly urgent.
Stents are one common method of treating cardiovascular conditions. These small but powerful devices, resembling metallic cages, hold open blood vessels that have narrowed as a result of CVDs, heart attacks, or plaque build-up, allowing blood to flow normally.
Current stent technology has some limitations, however, related to the issues of stent size and matters of biocompatibility. Biotech firms are looking to 3D bioprinting as a potential solution to these issues, to improve the overall treatment of CVDs.
Stent Varieties and Their Limitations
Currently, there are three main types of stents in use: bare metal (BMS), drug-eluting (DES), and bioresorbable vascular stents (BVS). Both BMS and DES stents are affordable and effective treatment options. But their application is not without challenges.
"Sometimes after stent implantation, thrombosis or clot formation can occur that may obstruct the artery, potentially leading to heart attack or death," says Vidmantas Šakalys, CEO of Vital3D Technologies, a biotech company that specializes in 3D bioprinting solutions. "These devices also have the potential to trigger immune system responses, leading to inflammation."
Studies have shown that 30 to 40 percent of patients receiving BMS and DES stents experience restenosis or re-narrowing of their stented arteries within six months.
The Promise of Bioresorbable Stents
An emerging alternative to BMS and DES stents is the bioresorbable vascular stent (BVS). These stents are temporary in usage, being absorbed into the body over time. This reduces some of the complications associated with permanent stents. Furthermore, because BVS stents are not made of alloys, they have a reduced risk of inducing inflammation.
Being a recent technology, however, BVS stents still have some limitations, particularly regarding their mechanical strength. "The properties of BVS depend on the material used," Šakalys says. "Polymer-based stents, for example, are thicker, which can impede blood flow and lead to the narrowing of the vessel. Such stents must be able to withstand the pressure generated by the blood vessel and controlled absorption rate."
Šakalys suggests that 3D bioprinting may offer solutions to the challenges that remain in BVS stents and stent technology generally.
Enhanced BVS Stent Through 3D Bioprinting
Bioprinting is a process of creating three-dimensional structures layer by layer using biocompatible materials, often incorporating living cells. This process is currently being developed in fields like organ transplantation and tissue regeneration. But bioprinting also has the potential to improve BVS stents.
"Bioprinting offers a finer measure of control over stents' mechanical properties and degradation time, which are some of the most important aspects of BVS stents," says Šakalys. "Using the 3D bioprinting process, it is possible to customize the size and structure of stents to fulfill individual patients’ requirements."
"Currently, there is a need in the market for individualized, high-quality BVS. Since every patient is different and with unique needs, creating a technology that can mass produce BVS created for each patient specifically is essential to move forward to individualized medicine."
As the healthcare industry continues to address the challenge of treating cardiovascular diseases effectively, innovative solutions like BVS and 3D bioprinting may well be at the heart of future treatments.