A New Method for the Preservation of Aortic Valve Homografts
David T. Cheung PhD, Patricia A. Weber DrPH, Albert C. Grobe MS, Yu Shomura MD, Suk Jung Choo MD, Hong He Luo MD, Douglas C. Marchion MS, Carlos M. G. Duran MD

The advantage of homografts is low thrombogenicity, excellent transvalvular pressure gradients and resistance to infection. However, homografts have the significant disadvantage of limited availability and durability that restricts their use and acceptance. The problem of limited availability is exacerbated by the preservation methods used. Homografts may be preserved in antibiotic solutions, which limits their shelf life to a few weeks. Alternatively, they may be cryopreserved; this significantly increases preservation time, but at the expense of complex transport and storage problems. Ensuring that the homograft is free from bacterial or viral contamination is also difficult with current techniques. The D-Hydro^TM technology allows the matrix of native tissue to be preserved via a decellularization process followed by freeze-drying, which permits gas-phase sterilization. The rehydrated homograft has properties similar to those of native tissue, and becomes rehabited by host cells.