What Is Restenosis

The problem is that, in 30-40% of these angioplasty patients, the vessel lumen begins to narrow dangerously again (i.e., it restenoses) within a few months after the surgery (Liu et al., 1989 Ross, 1993). Schematic representations of the arterial architecture in the stenosis-angioplasty-restenosis sequence are shown in Fig. 2. 

What causes restenosis One interpretation holds that, when the cracks and lacerations caused by the expanding balloon begin to heal, it is the 

FIGURE 2 Schematic view of an artery. (A) With a stenotic lesion, (B) undergoing balloon angioplasty, (C) immediately after angioplasty, and (D) after restenosis. 

As a starting point for our own series of experiments aimed at developing an antirestenosis advance based on the use of compounds having structure 1, we treated vascular smooth muscle cell cultures derived from rat aorta with compound 2, whose structure is shown in Fig. 3. We call this compound DEA/NO, because it is easily prepared by reacting diethylamine with NO. 

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