Cardiovascular diseases are considered as one of the serious diseases that leads to the death of millions of people all over the world. Stent implantation has been approved as an easy and promising way to treat cardiovascular diseases. However, in-stent restenosis and thrombosis remain serious problems after stent implantation. It was demonstrated in a large body of previously published literature that endothelium impairment represents a major factor for restenosis. This discovery became the driving force for many studies trying to achieve an optimized methodology for accelerated re-endothelialization to prevent restenosis. Thus, in this review, we summarize the different methodologies opted to achieve re-endothelialization, such as, but not limited to, manipulation of surface chemistry and surface topography.

Spinal fusion has become a common surgical technique to join two or more vertebrae to stabilize a damaged spine; however, the rate of pseudarthrosis (failure of fusion) is still high. To minimize pseudarthrosis, bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP2) has been approved for use in humans. In this study, we developed a poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) composite incorporated with magnesium hydroxide (MH) nanoparticles for the delivery of BMP2. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of released BMP2 from BMP2-immobilized PLGA/MH composite scaffold in an in vitro test and an in vivo mice spinal fusion model. The PLGA/MH composite films were fabricated via solvent casting technique. The surface of the PLGA/MH composite scaffold was modified with polydopamine (PDA) to effectively immobilize BMP2 on the PLGA/MH composite scaffold. Analyzes of the scaffold revealed that using PLGA/MH-PDA improved hydrophilicity, degradation performance, neutralization effects, and increased BMP2 loading efficiency. In addition, releasing BMP2 from the PLGA/MH scaffold significantly promoted the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells. Furthermore, the pH neutralization effect significantly increased in MC3T3-E1 cells cultured on the BMP2-immobilized PLGA/MH scaffold. In our animal study, the PLGA/MH scaffold as a BMP2 carrier attenuates inflammatory responses and promotes BMP2-induced bone formation in posterolateral spinal fusion model. These results collectively demonstrate that the BMP2-immobilized PLGA/MH scaffold offers great potential in effectively inducing bone formation in spinal fusion surgery.

Magnesium ceramics hold potential for numerous biological properties and biomedical applications.