Bone Grafts Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Bone Grafts, including details on spine fusion, surgery, procedure, risks.

Tissue Engineering of Heart Valves In Vivo Using Bone Marrow-derived Cells.

Kim SS, Lim SH, Hong YS, Cho SW, Ryu JH, Chang BC, Choi CY, Kim BS

Interdisciplinary Program for Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.

In this study, we tissue-engineered heart valves in vivo using autologous bone marrow-derived cells (BMCs). Canine BMCs were differentiated into endothelial cell (EC)-like cells and myofibroblast (MF)-like cells. Decellularized porcine pulmonary valves were seeded with BMCs and implanted to abdominal aorta and pulmonary valve of bone marrow donor dogs. Histological examination of the explants identified the regeneration of valvular structures expressing CD31 and smooth muscle alpha-actin, indicating the presence of EC-like and MF-like cells in the grafts at 3 and 1 week, respectively, after implantation. Fluorescent microscopic examinations identified the presence of fluorescently labeled cells in the explants, indicating that the implanted BMCs survived and participated in the heart valve reconstitution. This study reports, for the first time, on tissue engineering of heart valve in vivo using BMCs.

Published 13 July 2006 in Artif Organs, 30(7): 554-7.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Bone Grafts Research Today. All Rights Reserved.