Wolkers Willem F, Hilfiker Andres
Unit for Reproductive Medicine-Clinic for Horses, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
Biostabilization Laboratory-Lower Saxony Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Implant Research and Development, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
Methods Mol Biol. 2021;2180:731-739. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0783-1_40.
Malfunctioning heart valves can cause severe health problems, which if left untreated can lead to death. One of the treatment options is to replace a diseased heart valve with a decellularized valve construct prepared from human or animal material. Decellularized tissue scaffolds closely resemble properties of native tissue, while lacking immunogenic factors of cellular components. After transplantation, circulating stem and progenitor cells of the patient adhere to the scaffold resulting in in vivo tissue regeneration of the valve. Decellularized heart valve scaffold implants need to be stored to be readily available whenever needed, which can be done by freeze-drying. The advantage of freeze-drying is that it does not require bulky and energy-consuming freezing equipment for storage and allows easy transport. This chapter outlines the entire process from decellularization to freeze-drying to obtain dry decellularized heart valves, which after a simple rehydration step, can be used as implants. The protocol is described for porcine heart valves, but procedures can easily be adapted for material obtained from other species.
心脏瓣膜功能失调会引发严重的健康问题，若不加以治疗，可能会导致死亡。治疗方案之一是用人或动物材料制备的去细胞瓣膜构建体替换病变的心脏瓣膜。去细胞组织支架与天然组织的特性极为相似，同时缺乏细胞成分的免疫原性因子。移植后，患者循环中的干细胞和祖细胞会附着在支架上，从而在体内实现瓣膜组织的再生。去细胞心脏瓣膜支架植入物需要储存起来，以便在需要时随时可用，这可以通过冷冻干燥来实现。冷冻干燥的优点是不需要庞大且耗能的冷冻设备进行储存，并且便于运输。本章概述了从去细胞化到冷冻干燥以获得干燥去细胞心脏瓣膜的整个过程，经过简单的复水步骤后，这些瓣膜可作为植入物使用。该方案针对猪心脏瓣膜进行了描述，但程序可轻松适用于从其他物种获得的材料。
