A novel PVA-BC nanocomposite biomaterial demonstrates mechanical properties similar to porcine heart valves, suggesting potential utility for polymeric aortic heart valve prostheses.
May support PVA-BC development for polymeric valves; leaves open in vivo durability and clinical translation.
In this study, a polymeric aortic heart valve made of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-bacterial cellulose (BC) nanocomposite is simulated and designed using a hyperelastic non-linear anisotropic material model. A novel nanocomposite biomaterial combination of 15 wt % PVA and 0.5 wt % BC is developed in this study. The mechanical properties of the synthesized PVA-BC are similar to those of the porcine heart valve in both the principal directions. To design the geometry of the leaflets an advance surfacing technique is employed. A Galerkin-based non-linear finite element method is applied to analyse the mechanical behaviour of the leaflet in the closing and opening phases under physiological conditions. The model used in this study can be implemented in mechanical models for any soft tissues such as articular cartilage, tendon, and ligament.
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Mohammadi et al. (2009) studied this question.