Objectives, activities and expected results:

The main objective is to evaluate the biocompatibility and antimicrobial activity of the thin films developed, their performance in vivo and to scale-up the functional films deposited on the stents in a relevant environment.
This objective will be achieved by realising the following specific objectives:
• to confirm the antibacterial action of the coatings produced against various strains of bacteria, different from those tested in the ClusterStent, so that the functionalised stents can subsequently be certified according to the ISO 22196 standard;
• to evaluate the antifungal action of the thin films deposited on the stents, since fungi are responsible for a high percentage of the complications associated with these medical devices;
• to certify the antimicrobial action time by testing the coated stents at longer intervals than those studied in the previous project;
• to study the toxicity of the coatings used on the stents on different cell lines of the tissues that make up the urinary system;
• to assess the in vivo biocompatibility of the coatings placed on the stents;
• to implement the coating process on an industrial scale using production equipment with characteristics suitable for coating parts with complex geometries, such as stents.