A terminator-inspired liquid metal stent for treating atherosclerotic vascular stenosis with precise vascular matching and magnetothermally regulated active degradation

Jianxiang Xiong, Li Huang, Jingzheng Huang, Zhibin Zhou, Shen Hu, Wenpeng Zhao, Guizhen Xu, Xingchun Lai, Guoyu Yang, Weimin Zhou, Xiaolei Wang · 2026

Read A terminator-inspired liquid metal stent for treating atherosclerotic vascular stenosis with precise vascular matching and magnetothermally regulated active degradation by Jianxiang Xiong, Li Huang, Jingzheng Huang, Zhibin Zhou, Shen Hu, Wenpeng Zhao, Guizhen Xu, Xingchun Lai, Guoyu Yang, Weimin Zhou, Xiaolei Wang (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13519642.txt.

Description

Jianxiang Xiong and ten co-authors published a 2026 study of a liquid metal stent inspired by the shape-shifting robot of the Terminator films. Stents prop open narrowed arteries, but standard ones are not shaped to the patient and stay in the body for good, with lasting clot and re-narrowing risks. The team cast liquid metal into a form matched to the diseased vessel and coated it with heparin, a blood-thinning layer.

The coating fought clots and re-narrowing in tests. The metal also showed antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Best of all, once the vessel has healed and remodeled, an alternating magnetic field heats the stent so it degrades on command, with no second surgery. The authors present the design as a route to stents that vanish when their job is done.

Catalog record

CREATORJianxiang Xiong, Li Huang, Jingzheng Huang, Zhibin Zhou, Shen Hu, Wenpeng Zhao, Guizhen Xu, Xingchun Lai, Guoyu Yang, Weimin Zhou, Xiaolei Wang
YEAR2026
COLLECTIONPAPERS
FORMATTXT
FILE SIZE70 KB
VERSION1.0
LICENSECC BY 4.0
RIGHTSCC BY
SOURCEEurope PMC

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13519642

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