Combined anticalcification treatment of bovine pericardium with decellularization and hyaluronic acid derivative

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of decellularization and hyaluronic acid derivative on the improvement of anticalcification of glutaraldehyde fixed bovine pericardium (GFBP) using a rat subcutaneous implantation model A cell extraction process was employed to remove the cells and cellular components from bovine pericardium (BP), leaving a framework of largely insoluble collagen. Then acellular BP was cross-linked by glutaraldehyde solution and treated with hyaluronic acid derivative (HA-ADH) which was obtained by coupling adipic dihydrazide (ADH) on-COOH of hyaluronic acid (HA). The results of in vivo calcification tests showed that the calcium content was decreased dramatically by decellularization alone (from 28.07 ± 18.87 to 2.44 ± 0.55 μg Ca/mg dry tissue after 8 weeks' implantation), and even less concentration was shown by the combination of HA derivative treatment and decellularization (GFaBP-HA group) (0.25 ± 0.08 μg Ca/mg dry tissue after 8 weeks' implantation). In addition, GFaBP-HA group not only presented a lower degree of calcification, but also showed lower ratios of Ca/P molar, which corresponded to amorphous calcium phosphates. The obtained results indicated that GFaBP-HA was a potential candidate for the manufacture of anticalcification bioprostheses.