Since the introduction of zinc by our group as a potential biodegradable arterial implant metal in 2013, we have been intensively developing zinc alloys, coatings, and processing treatments to reach the benchmarks for biodegradable stents capable of safely and effectively treating arterial diseases. We have found that ionic zinc degradation products have the beneficial biological effect of promoting smooth muscle cell apoptosis near the implant, which suppresses neointimal hyperplasia responses. Modifications to zinc that increase its corrosion uniformity have further ameliorating effects on the biological responses, including with respect to neointimal hyperplasia and inflammation. We have also evaluated materials in diseased and aged animal models to more closely simulate the human application conditions of advanced age and arterial disease. We found that disease and age profoundly shift the biological responses to implanted arterial materials, often in opposite directions. For instance, the presence of arterial disease increased the inflammatory response by over 20-fold, while the presence of advanced age abrogated the inflammatory responses. Overall, the talk will describe our major findings from the past decade, focusing on the biological response to materials.
Jeremy Goldman received his bachelor’s from Cornell University in Chemical Engineering, in 1998, and doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University, in 2002. He has been active in the area of vascular materials, and biodegradable metals in particular for more than a decade. He also helped pioneer zinc, which is now considered as one of three main candidate metals for biodegradable stents and orthopedic implants.