Atherosclerotic Porcine Coronary Stent Model

Preclinical testing of interventional cardiovascular devices such as endovascular stents requires an appropriate animal model to test the performance characteristics and blood and chronic tissue biocompatibility. The United States Food and Drug Administration has proposed guidelines that require evaluation of coronary angioplasty devices in an atherosclerotic model prior to approval for clinical investigations (1). Unfortunately, large animal models of spontaneous atherosclerosis have limited availability, and their cost is prohibitive for most experimental applications. Porcine coronary models have been developed that use dietary manipulation and arterial injury to produce an accelerated atherosclerotic lesion (2–5).