Performance Leakage for Biospan-Covered Electrospun Vascular Stents in a Pulsatile Flow Bioreactor

.......................................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 2: Specific Aims .............................................................................................................. 12 Chapter 3: Background ................................................................................................................. 13 3.1: Restenosis .......................................................................................................................... 13 3.2:Bare-metal/drug-eluting/covered stents .............................................................................. 15 3.3: The Electrospinning Process .............................................................................................. 23 Chapter 4: Overview of Experimentation ..................................................................................... 28 Chapter 5: Design Component ...................................................................................................... 29 5.1: Statement of Design Challenge .......................................................................................... 29 5.2 Preliminary Flow Design .................................................................................................... 30 5.3 Leak Chamber Attachment ................................................................................................. 32 Chapter 6: Materials and Methods ................................................................................................ 42 6.1: Electrospun-Coating on Vascular Stents ........................................................................... 42 6.2: Coated Vascular Stents under Flow ................................................................................... 43 6.3: Polyvinylpyrrolidone Solutions ......................................................................................... 44 6.4: Data Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 46 Chapter 7: Results ......................................................................................................................... 48 Chapter 8: Discussion ................................................................................................................... 66 Chapter 9: Limitations .................................................................................................................. 75 9.1: Vascular Substitute ............................................................................................................ 75 9.2: Surrounding Pressure ......................................................................................................... 76 9.3: Biological Interaction ........................................................................................................ 76 9.4: Sample Size........................................................................................................................ 77 Chapter 10: Future Work .............................................................................................................. 78 10.1: Cellular Seeding ............................................................................................................... 78 10.2: Drug Loading ................................................................................................................... 78 10.3: Animal Testing ................................................................................................................ 79 Chapter 11: Conclusion................................................................................................................. 80 Chapter 12: Index .......................................................................................................................... 81 Chapter 12: List of References ..................................................................................................... 90