In Stents

Hydrogels are gloopy polymers capable of storing liquids – often they’re biocompatible, at home inside the human body, with tremendous potential for delivering drugs. Here a new 3D-printing technique uses blasts of UV light to stick or 'cure' a shape memory polymer (yellow) to a red-coloured hydrogel in precise patterns. This twisted mesh is a prototype for a new type of stent, similar to those routinely used to prop open damaged blood vessels, only with a few surprises. First, the hydrogel isn’t red at all, but carrying a red-coloured dye. Inside an artificial blood vessel, over a period of three hours, the stent opens up as the shape memory polymer expands in the 37-degree heat, expanding a scaffold inside the collapsed vessel, but also prompting the hydrogel to release its cargo – which may one day be life-supporting chemicals.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

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A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image from work by Qi Ge & Zhe Chen, et al Dept of Mechanical & Energy Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen
• and State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic System, Key Laboratory of Soft Machines ad Smart Devices of Zhejiang Province, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Science Advances, January 2021