Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 21, 2025
Autologous Endothelial Progenitor Cell-Seeding Technology and Biocompatibility Testing For Cardiovascular Devices in Large Animal Model
Published on: September 9, 2011
Re-endothelialization of Decellularized Scaffolds With Endothelial Progenitor Cell Capturing Aptamer: A New Strategy
Xue Chen1, Nianguo Dong, Xu Xu
1From the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Abstract:
Tissue-engineered heart valve (TEHV) is a promising alternative to current heart valve substitute. Decellularized porcine aortic heart valves (DAVs) are the most common scaffolds of TEHV. Hard to endothelialization is one of the disadvantages of DAVs. Therefore, we aimed to immobilize endothelial progenitor cell (EPC)-aptamer onto DAVs for accelerating endothelialization. In this study, three groups of scaffolds were constructed: DAVs, aptamer-immobilized DAVs (aptamer-DAVs), and glutaraldehyde crosslinked DAVs (GA-DAVs). The results of flow cytometry revealed that EPC-aptamer was specific to EPCs and was immobilized onto DAVs. Cells adhesion experiments demonstrated that EPCs adhered more tightly onto aptamer-DAVs group than other two groups of scaffolds. And cell proliferation assay indicated that EPCs seeded onto aptamer-DAVs group grew faster than DAVs group and GA-DAVs group. Moreover, dynamic capture experiment in flow conditions revealed that the number of EPCs captured by aptamer-DAVs group was more than other two groups. In conclusion, aptamer-DAVs could specifically promote adhesion and proliferation of EPCs and had ability to capture EPCs in simulated flow condition. This could promote re-endothelialization of scaffolds.
