# Novel drug-eluting sutures to prevent vascular graft anastomosis stenosis

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · 2020 · $325,920

## Abstract

Project Summary
Millions of anastomoses, or surgical connections between arteries or veins, are performed in vascular,
transplant, and reconstruction procedures in the US each year. Neointimal hyperplasia, or proliferation and
migration of vascular smooth muscles cells into the vessel lumen space, develops immediately at the site of
anastomosis due to the local damage caused by the surgical procedure. The resulting stenosis, or narrowing of
the vessel after the anastomosis, is the main contributor to arterial, venous, arteriovenous, and prosthetic graft
failure. Preventing anastomotic stenosis is the key to long-term efficacy of all types of vascular surgery, and
will improve patient prognosis. The gold standard for anastomotic surgery is to use non-absorbable sutures,
like nylon or polypropylene. We hypothesize that sutures can be produced that locally release anti-proliferative
drugs at the site of anastomosis for several weeks or longer, thereby preventing neointimal overgrowth and
stenosis without disrupting normal surgical workflow. Used during anastomosis procedure, the suture will
provide sustained release of drugs for several weeks or longer to prevent neointimal overgrowth.
We describe a novel electrospinning platform capable of producing both non-absorbable and absorbable drug-
eluting sutures for vascular surgery: (i) nylon sutures that are wrapped in drug-eluting and degradable, polymer
nanofibers, and (ii) fully absorbable, high-strength, drug-eluting, twisted polymer nanofiber sutures. We have
loaded these sutures with rapamycin, which is a promising anti-proliferative drug that has been used in
combination with stents for preventing in-stent restenosis. Our preliminary results demonstrate that nanofiber-
coated nylon sutures provide sustained rapamycin release that decreases neointimal hyperplasia in a rat
anastomosis model in a drug dose dependent fashion for several weeks. Here, we aim to further optimize our
suture formulations for drug loading and drug release to prevent neointimal hyperplasia while maintaining
anastomosis repair and minimizing systemic side effects. The sutures will be evaluated in our rat anastomosis
model, and the most promising candidates will be tested in a large animal model that is considered to best
recapitulate the human vasculature. If successful, our sutures could serve as a platform technology for
preventing stenosis in any type of organ anastomosis.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10085517
- **Project number:** 7R01HL141612-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Narutoshi Hibino
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $325,920
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2018-04-01 → 2023-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10085517

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10085517, Novel drug-eluting sutures to prevent vascular graft anastomosis stenosis (7R01HL141612-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10085517. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*