Key result
Saphenous vein and umbilical cord cells appear feasible for pulmonary valve engineering despite marker differences.
Why the study?
Current prosthetic and bioprosthetic materials for heart valve defects lack growth potential and are suboptimal for pediatric patients, motivating evaluation of alternative cell sources for tissue engineering.
Are cells from saphenous veins or umbilical cords feasible sources for tissue engineering of pulmonary heart valves compared to native human pulmonary valve cells?
Are cells from saphenous veins or umbilical cords feasible sources for tissue engineering of pulmonary heart valves compared to native human pulmonary valve cells?
Cells from saphenous veins and umbilical cords show promise as feasible autologous cell sources for tissue engineering of pulmonary heart valves, particularly for pediatric patients.
Cell source may affect engineered valve durability in children; leaves open optimal autologous origin for growth-capable constructs.
Current techniques to resolve heart valve defects involve the use of prosthetic and bioprosthetic materials. These materials lack the potential to grow and are not ideal, especially not for pediatric patients. Novel techniques like tissue engineering involve the use of biodegradable polymers coated with autologous myofibroblast and endothelial cells. We inspected morphological and marker gene expression differences between cells harvested from the saphenous vein, or from veins and arteries of the umbilical cord, and the cells they are designed to replace: the interstitial and endothelial cells of the pulmonary heart valve. We assessed the extent to which the endothelial cells from the inspected sources in vitro resemble endothelial cells of human pulmonary heart valves, and we found that myofibroblast cells, respective of their source, in vitro differ from the interstitial cells from human pulmonary heart valves regarding collagen and smooth muscle alpha-actin. Therefore we conclude that the cells isolated from the saphenous veins, or from veins and arteries of the umbilical cord might be feasible cell sources for tissue engineering of heart valve for the pulmonary position.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Schaefermeier et al. (2008) studied Heart valve defects. Cells harvested from saphenous vein or umbilical cord vessels vs. Interstitial and endothelial cells of the human pulmonary heart valve was evaluated on Morphological and marker gene expression differences. Cells isolated from saphenous veins or umbilical cord vessels might be feasible sources for tissue engineering of pulmonary heart valves despite in vitro differences in marker expression.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: