Nitric oxide based strategies for applications of biomedical devices

Since the first report describing nitric oxide (NO) in the mid-1980s, research efforts have been devoted to elucidating the pathway of NO generation and the mechanism of NO function in vivo. The worldwide expansion of NO investigations have helped advance progress in biomedical device applications of NO-based strategies for cardiovascular devices, wound healing and antimicrobial agents, including recent in vivo investigations. Here we describe the general concepts of NO discovery, mechanisms of NO synthesis in vivo and NO producing materials. Both design strategies and results are discussed and compared in release kinetics, NO dose and biological effects, with the aim of providing foundations for the development of new NO-based therapeutics.