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Published on: March 18, 2015
Platelet gel supernatant as a potential tool to repopulate acellular heart valves
1Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. pamela.somers@ugent.be
Objective:
The aim of this study was to repopulate decellularized heart valve matrices with ovine mesenchymal stem cells (oMSCs) by the use of platelet gel (PG) supernatant, a storage vehicle for growth factors.
Methods:
oMSCs were exposed to different concentrations of PG-released supernatant and cell proliferation was evaluated using the MTS assay. oMSC motility and invasiveness were assayed using a Boyden chamber. A quantitative sandwich enzyme immunoassay was used to examine amounts of bFGF and TGF-β1 in the PG supernatant. Repopulation of acellular heart valve matrices was stimulated by seeding matrices with oMSCs supplemented with the PG supernatant.
Results:
The most significant increase in proliferation induced by PG supernatant appeared at 1 × 10(5) plts/ml concentration. Higher concentrations evoked reduction of the stimulatory process. oMSC motility was most significantly stimulated at 1 × 10(6) plts/ml. Stimulating invasiveness of oMSCs needed the much higher concentration of 2 × 10(6) plts/ml. Immunoassays revealed that sheep PG supernatant contains 184.8 pg/ml bFGF and 60.5 ng/ml TGF-β1. Moreover, repopulation of acellular heart valve matrices was significantly enhanced by PG supernatant addition and resulted in upregulation of the myofibroblast marker alpha-smooth muscle actin.
Conclusions:
Growth factors released from platelets had the potential to induce cell repopulation in a heart valve tissue engineering procedure, through stimulation of mesenchymal stem-cell migration and invasion.
