@article {17567, title = {TAILOR MADE DEGRADABLE URETERAL STENTS FROM NATURAL ORIGIN POLYMERS}, booktitle = {3rd Meeting ICVS/3B{\textquoteright}s}, year = {2013}, month = {2013-06-28 00:00:00}, address = {Braga, Portugal}, abstract = {

{\textquotedblleft}What if we could prepare degradable ureteral stents, that would avoid the need for a second surgery and improve patient comfort?{\textquotedblright}. This question was the major driving force for the development of the work to be presented. It was proposed as an idea out of the box in the previous ICVS/3B{\textquoteright}s meeting and it was obviously addressed to the 3B{\textquoteright}s researchers, known for their expertise in biomaterials.

Urinary stents are commonly applied in urology to relieve the distress and/or pain caused to the patients due to the obstruction of urine flow. The blockage of urine flow is, in most of the cases, temporary and the indwelling time is limited to a short period of time. In this sense, major advantages would be foreseen by the development of degradable stents.

In this work, the possibility to prepare hollow tubes from natural origin polysaccharides, was evaluated. Polymeric solutions were injected in templates of appropriate geometry and cross-linked at room temperature. Hollow tubes, with a diameter of 2 mm, were prepared and characterized in terms of surface morphology by SEM. Water uptake and polymer degradation studies were executed using an artificial urine immersion solution. The developed stents presented high water uptake ability but are able to maintain their shape and integrity. The degradation timeframe can be tuned from 14 days, to longer periods. In vitro assessment of possible encrustation, i.e. the deposition of Mg and/or Ca salts, was also evaluated by SEM-EDS and no encrustation was observed up to 28 days. The ability to avoid bacterial adhesion and the creation of a biofilm was evaluated with S. aureus bacterias (gram positive), Escherichia coli and klebsiella (gram negative) and we obtained results comparable with commercially available stents (Biosoft duo, Porg{\'e}s, Coloplast). Cytotoxicity and cell adhesion studies were also executed to compare the developed materials with a commercial stent. The obtained results reveal that the proposed materials are major breakthroughs in the development of degradable urinary stents.

}, keywords = {Degradable polymer, Stents}, author = {Barros, A. A. and Duarte, A. R. C. and Pires, R. A. and Marques, B. S. and Loduvico, P. and Lima, E. and Mano, J. F. and Reis, R. L.} }