MICROMECHANICAL DEVICES FOR INTRAVASCULAR DRUG-DELIVERY

Microfabrication technology, more commonly applied to the manufacture of integrated circuits, can be used to build devices useful for mechan ical delivery of drugs and genes. Microprobes fabricated using silicon micromachining have been used to deliver DNA into cells as an alterna tive to bombardment and microinjection. This idea can be extended to i ntravascular stents with integrated microprobes capable of piercing co mpressed plaque and delivering anti-restenosis therapies into coronary arteries. Preliminary experiments using filleted rabbit arteries have demonstrated transection of the internal elastic lamina. New nonplana r microfabrication technologies are necessary for creating practical d evices with cylindrical symmetry; a promising possibility is to use mi crofabricated structures of anodic metal oxides.