A stent is a tiny, expandable metal mesh coil. It is put into the stenosed area of the artery to keep the artery from narrowing or closing again.

Once the stent has been placed, tissue will start to coat the stent. The stent will be fully lined with tissue within 3 to 12 months. Most stents are coated with medicine to prevent scar tissue formation inside the stent. These stents are called drug-eluting stents (DES). They release medicine within the blood vessel that slows the overgrowth of tissue within the stent. Thereby its prevent stenosis. Some stents don't have this medicine coating and are called bare metal stents (BMS). BMS led to the emergence of neo-intimal hyperplasia and neo-atherosclerosis. Long-term uses result in in-stent restenosis (ISR).

Inflammatory (vascular) response to stent implantation has been hampered by difficulties in sectioning metal and tissue without distortion of the tissue stent interface. If the metal is removed before tissue processing, then it will cause a loss of arterial architecture.

So department of pathology in Palamur Biosciences standardised the Resin Embedding Techniques for medical devices implants (coronary and femoral stent; bone implants).

The formalin fixed arterial segment, embedded in resin (T9100, Technovit Kit), and sectioned using Struer’s Secotome 60; a High speed Precision cutting machine.

The section thickness reduced to 10 to 20µm using Metco Bainpol polishing machine. 

Then the sections were stained by using automated multi stainer (Leica).

The slides were examined by certified pathologist to score inflammatory reaction and percent stenosis measured by Leica LAS V4.12 Digital Image Analysis Software. 

More details, please contact us bd@palamurbio.com

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