In Vitro Evaluation of Cenderitide‐Eluting Stent I -An Antirestenosis and Proendothelization Approach

Despite the success that drug‐eluting stents (DESs) have achieved for minimizing in‐stent restenosis (ISR), the antirestenotic agents used in DES have been implicated in delayed endothelial healing and impairment of endothelial functions. Cenderitide (CD‐NP) is a novel antiproliferation chimeric peptide of semiendothelial origin; thus, this paper aims to demonstrate the selectivity aspect of this new peptide via in vitro evaluation on key players in ISR-smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and endothelial cells. The microbicinchoninic acid protein assay was used to investigate the CD‐NP release from films and stents. Cenderitide‐containing films blended with poly(ethylene glycol) and its copolymer exhibited higher release kinetics compared with neat poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL) formulation. Cenderitide‐eluting stents (CES) was produced by coating bare metallic stents with CD‐NP entrapped PCL using an ultrasonic spray coater. The investigation of CD‐NP on in vitro cells revealed that CD‐NP inhibits human coronary smooth muscle cells (HCaSMCs) proliferation but exhibits no effects on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) proliferation. Moreover, CD‐NP released up to 7 days displayed inhibitory effects on SMCs proliferation. The CES produced in this work shows that the released CD‐NP inhibits HCaSMCs proliferation but did not hamper HUVECs proliferation in vitro, suggesting that it has potential to reduce ISR without retarding the endothelialization healing in vivo. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association J Pharm Sci 103:3631-3640, 2014