Characterization and optimization of bioactive coatings for vascular applications

在加拿大等工业化国家，心血管疾病是导致发病率和死亡率的最重要原因。使用插入导管的血管内植入物的微创疗法已经开发出来，与传统手术相比具有许多优点，包括降低死亡风险、减少失血和缩短康复和住院时间。然而，它们的疗效经常受到频繁的临床并发症的影响。作为加拿大生物材料和血管内植入物研究主席，Lerouge的目标是通过开发适合临床的策略来改进这些植入物和治疗方法。这项研究计划的重点是生物活性涂层，旨在克服用于血管内植入物的合成聚合物的固有缺陷。我们的方法是开发一种使用等离子体聚合涂层的通用方法，这种涂层可以沉积在各种表面上。结果表明，这些薄膜具有良好的细胞粘附性。更重要的是，它们的化学成分可以轻松有效地固定生物分子，以控制生物反应。然而，还有几个问题(附着力、灭菌性、稳定性……)在将这些创新涂层转移到现实植入物上之前，仍然需要解决这些问题。这项研究计划将使新一代血管和血管内植入物的生物活性涂层的优化和表征成为可能，临床并发症更少。所开发的工程工具和方法稍后也将适用于其他涂层和病理学。好处将包括在加拿大这一非常具有战略意义的研究领域对高素质人员进行多学科培训。LEROUGE在这一对加拿大具有战略重要性的领域与临床医生和行业的密切合作是成功的关键。

Cardiovascular diseases are the most important cause of morbidity and mortality in industrialised countries like Canada. Minimally-invasive therapies using endovascular implants inserted by catheters have been developed that offer numerous advantages over conventional surgeries, including reduced risks of mortality, decreased blood loss and shorter recovery and hospitalisation times. Yet, their efficacy is often jeopardized by frequent clinical complications. As chairman of the Canada Research Chair in Biomaterials and endovascular implants, Lerouge aims to improve these implants and therapies by developing clinically-suitable strategies. This research program is focused on bioactive coatings designed to counter the inherent shortcomings of synthetic polymers used for endovascular implants. Our approach is to develop a versatile method using plasma-polymerized coatings that can be deposited on a wide variety of surfaces. These films were shown to exhibit excellent cell adhesion properties. More importantly, their chemical composition allows easy and efficient immobilisation of biomolecules for the control of the biological response. Yet several issues (adhesion, sterilizability, stability ...) remain to be addressed before transfering these innovative coatings onto realistic implants. This research program will enable optimization and characterization of bioactive coatings for a new generation of vascular and endovascular implants with less clinical complications. The engineering tools and methods developed will later also be applicable to other coatings and pathologies. Benefits will include multidisciplinary training of highly qualified personnel in this very strategic research field for Canada. Lerouge's close collaborations with clinicians and industry in this strategically-important field for Canada constitute keys for success.