Biomechanical and structural changes following the decellularization of bovine pericardial tissues for use as a...

To achieve natural scaffolds for tissue engineering applications we decellularized bovine pericardial (BP) tissues according to two different protocols: a novel treatment based on Triton(®) X-100 (12 h, 4 °C) (BP1) and a trypsin/EDTA treatment (37 °C, 48 h) (BP2). Results were compared with commercially available acellular xenogeneic biomaterials, Veritas(®) and Collamed(®). Biomechanical characteristics, high (E(h)) and low (E(l)) modulus of elasticity, of the fresh untreated tissue varied with the anatomical direction (apex to base (T) to transverse (L)) (mean ± SDEV): (41.63 ± 14.65-48.12 ± 10.19 MPa and 0.27 ± 0.05-0.30 ± 0.12 MPa respectively). BP1 had no mechanical effect (44.65 ± 19.73-52.67 ± 7.59 MPa and 0.37 ± 0.14-0.37 ± 0.11 MPa, respectively) but BP2 resulted in significant decrease in E(h) and E(l) (20.96 ± 8.17-36.82 ± 3.23 MPa and 0.20 ± 0.06-0.23 ± 0.06 MPa). Hysteresis ratio (h) varied (19-26 % of the loading energy) independently of anatomical direction. Glycosaminoglycans content was unaffected by BP1, while 22 % of chondroitin/dermatan sulphate and 60 % of hyaluronan were removed after BP2 treatment. Endothelial cell adhesion was achieved after 24 h and 3 days cell culture.