Evaluation of biodegradable, three-dimensional matrices for tissue engineering of heart valves

A crucial factor in tissue engineering of heart valves is the type of scaffold material. In the following study, we tested three different biodegradable scaffold materials, polyglycolic acid (PGA), polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), and poly-4-hydroxybutyrate (P4HB), as scaffolds for tissue engineering of heart valves. We modified PHA and P4HB by a salt leaching technique to create a porous matrix. We constructed trileaflet heart valve scaffolds from each polymer and tested them in a pulsatile flow bioreactor. In addition, we evaluated the cell attachment to our polymers by creating four tubes of each material (length equals 4 cm; inner diameter, 0.5 cm), seeding each sample with 8,000,000 ovine vascular cells, and incubating the cell-polymer construct for 8 days (37 degrees C and 5% CO2). The seeded vascular constructs were exposed to continuous flow for 1 hour. Analysis of samples included DNA assay before and after flow exposure, 4-hydroxyproline assay, and environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM). We fabricated trileaflet heart valve scaffolds from porous PHA and porous P4HB, which opened and closed synchronously in a pulsatile bioreactor. It was not possible to create a functional trileaflet heart valve scaffold from PGA. After seeding and incubating the PGA-, PHA-, and P4HB-tubes, there were significantly (p < 0.001) more cells on PGA compared with PHA and P4HB. There were no significant differences among the materials after flow exposure, but there was a significantly higher collagen content (p < 0.017) on the PGA samples compared with P4HB and PHA. Cell attachment and collagen content was significantly higher on PGA samples compared with PHA and P4HB. However, PHA and P4HB also demonstrate a considerable amount of cell attachment and collagen development and share the major advantage that both materials are thermoplastic, making it possible to mold them into the shape of a functional scaffold for tissue engineering of heart valves.