Significant improvements in the primary success rate of various medical and surgical treatments of atherosclerotic disease have been made in the last few years. Yet recurring failures continue in 30 to 50% of the patients after balloon angioplasty, bypass surgery, and endarectomy because of late restenosis of the treated vessel. The restenosis is a result of a complex series of fibroproliferative responses to the vascular injury that results in vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation, migration, neointimal accumulation, and secretion of extracellular proteins. Microtubules are likely involved in controlling or moderating critical intracellular mechanisms necessary for the VSMC fibroproliferative response. We found that taxol, a microtubule stabilizing agent, inhibited VSMC proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro. In vivo, taxol prevented neo-intimal VSM accumulation in the rat carotid artery after balloon dilation and endothelial denudation injury. We subsequently have found that another microtubule stabilizing agent, D2O (heavy water) also inhibited VSMC proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro and neointimal formation in vivo. These experiments suggest that taxol, D2O, or other pharmacologic agents that stabilize microtubules may have therapeutic value in preventing human restenosis after balloon angioplasty, bypass surgery, and endartectomy.
| Heldman, A W; Cheng, L; Jenkins, G M et al. (2001) Paclitaxel stent coating inhibits neointimal hyperplasia at 4 weeks in a porcine model of coronary restenosis. Circulation 103:2289-95 |
