Delivery of Thrombospondin-2 Small Interfering RNA for Suppression of Intimal Hyperplasia

Abstract

Treatments of peripheral arterial disease, which affects >8.5 million individuals in the United States, include angioplasty and stenting and graft bypass. However, these have been limited by the pervasive development of intimal hyperplasia, which leads to in-stent restenosis and reduced graft patency. We propose a novel technique to suppress the progression of intimal hyperplasia using bioengineered hydrogels (ClickGels) for localized small interfering RNA (siRNA) delivery and suppression of thrombospondin-2 (TSP2), an upregulated gene of intimal hyperplasia, in an in vivo rat carotid angioplasty model.