Nanofibrous vildagliptin-eluting stents enhance re-endothelialization and reduce neointimal formation in diabetes: In vitro and in vivo

Background: The high lifetime risk of vascular disease is one of the important issues that plague patients with diabetes mellitus. Systemic oral vildagliptin administration favors endothelial recovery and inhibits smooth muscle cell (SMC) proliferation. However, the localized release of vildagliptin in the diabetic vessel damage has seldom been investigated. Research design and methods: In this work, nanofiber-eluting stents that loaded with vildagliptin, a dipeptidyl peptidase-4 enzyme (DPP-4) inhibitor, was fabricated to treat diabetic vascular disease. To prepare nanofibers, the poly (D,L)-lactide-co-glycolide (PLGA) and vildagliptin were mixed using hexafluoroisopropanol and electrospinning process. In vitro and in vivo release rates of the vildagliptin were characterized using high-performance liquid chromatography. Results: Effective vildagliptin concentrations were delivered for more than 28 days from the nanofibrous membranes coating on the surface of the stents in vitro and in vivo. The vildagliptineluting PLGA membranes greatly accelerated the recovery of diabetic endothelia and reduced SMC hyperplasia. The type I collagen content of the diabetic vascular intimal area that was treated by vildagliptin-eluting stents was lower than that of the non-vildagliptin-eluting group. Conclusion: The experimental results revealed that stenting with vildagliptin-eluting PLGA membranes could potentially promote healing for diabetic arterial diseases.