Click on image to view larger version.

Figure 3 Endothelial progenitor cell capture stent bioactivity (in vitro). The cell-binding activity of the HEALING-FIM and HEALING-II stents was compared with negative controls (bare stents). In the bioassay, stents were exposed to a suspension of human CD34+ cells (kg-1a cells, American Type Culture Collection) for 1 h with agitation. Excess cells are removed and bound cells are tagged with a fluorescent nuclear stain (DAPI, 4'6-diamidino-2-phenylindole). After rinsing, the stents were placed in a microplate for analysis in a fluorescent plate reader. The number of cells bound was calculated by interpolation from standard curve on the same plate.