The first report of late stent thrombosis leading to acute myocardial infarction in patients receiving the new CD34 antibody coated endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) capture stent may cast doubts on this technology. In our letter we review the potential risks and benefits of these stent types and give a short overview of recent alternative stent coatings for in vivo self endothelialization by using peptides, magnetic molecules or aptamers. Drawbacks with EPC capture stents should not lead to condemning this strategy in general, but rather stimulate research efforts to develop more suited capture molecules and more sophisticated coatings for the post-DES era towards more biological coatings which mimicry progenitor cell homing factors for rapid vascular wall regeneration.
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