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Stent insertion into disease-narrowed arteries often damages blood vessels and triggers vascular smooth muscle (VSM) proliferation as a healing response, re-blocking arteries. To combat this, anti-proliferative agents can be incorporated into stents, but these delay healing, inhibit endothelial cell (EC) re-growth and promote thrombosis. This study aims to identify novel heparin-based analogues that inhibit VSM proliferation, promote EC proliferation and retain anti-thrombotic activity. In MTT-assays, incubation with naive heparin complexed with either Na+, K+, Mg2+ or Ca2+ ions (10 μg/μl for 4 days in normal growth media, GM) significantly reduced human coronary artery smooth muscle cell (HCASMC) growth compared to incubation in GM alone (P