Tissue Engineering of Cardiac Valve Prostheses I: Development and Histological Characterization of an Acellular Porcine Scaffold
Catherine Booth PhD, Sotiris A. Korossis MSc, Helen E. Wilcox PhD, Kevin G. Watterson FRCS, John N. Kearney PhD, John Fisher DEng, Eileen Ingham PhD

Current heart valve prostheses have several deficiencies, which makes them problematic for use in younger patients. Tissue valves have a short life expectancy (10-15 years), while mechanical valves require long-term anticoagulation therapy. The ideal solution would be a viable tissue valve that could maintain biochemical and mechanical properties, yet grow with the patient. In this study, a protocol was designed and optimized to decellularize porcine heart valves for use in developing tissue-engineered heart valves. Successful treatment with sodium dodecyl sulfate or sodium deoxycholate generated a cell-free scaffold, with normal histoarchitecture. Levels and distribution of the major structural proteins, collagen I, elastin and glycosaminoglycans, were comparable with those of the fresh leaflet. These methods are being developed further with a view to reseeding with autologous cells to produce tissue-engineered solutions for clinical implantation.