Description
An unanticipated complication of the use of bare metal stents in percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty is in-stent restenosis resulting in >50% late lumen diameter loss in treated patients. In an effort to reduce in-stent restenosis, drug eluting stents containing the immunosuppressant sirolimus or zotarolimus have recently been developed. We report here the molecular response of arterial tissue to the implanting of these drug-eluting stents.