Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) is a medical procedure performed on patients with severe atherosclerosis to open up stenosed blood vessels by inflating a balloon at the narrowing location. In many cases of PTA, restenosis occurs post-surgery due either to elastic behavior of the artery, also known as elastic recoil in medical literature, or to plaque reformation within the lumen. For that reason, stents are commonly deployed to keep the arterial lumen open. Stent deployment causes problems in some cases;​ for example, the presence of stents in arteries with frequent movements and large deformations can cause ruptures in the arterial wall.

Recent studies on 1,8-Naphthalimide organic compounds have shown that when these compounds are activated using a specific wavelength of light, it causes cross-linking between the components of the extracellular matrix. This observation has led to studies with the goal of developing a method to utilize this process to replace stents for cases with limiting conditions for stent deployment. Therefore, Natural Vascular Scaffolding (NVS) has been drawing experts’ attention in the field.

In this study we focused on measuring and quantifying the effects of NVS on the mechanical properties of healthy arteries undergoing PTA under various loading conditions. The results of the experiments show that NVS treatment results in a significant increase in working diameter, in the absence of changes to vessel stiffness. These results suggest that NVS may be effective alternative to mechanical stents.