TY - JOUR
T1 - Bio-Inspired Fiber Reinforcement for Aortic Valves
T2 - Scaffold Production Process and Characterization
AU - Boehm, Christian A.
AU - Donay, Christine
AU - Lubig, Andreas
AU - Ruetten, Stephan
AU - Sesa, Mahmoud
AU - Fernandez-Colino, Alicia
AU - Reese, Stefanie
AU - Jockenhoevel, Stefan
PY - 2023/9/1
Y1 - 2023/9/1
N2 - The application of tissue-engineered heart valves in the high-pressure circulatory system is still challenging. One possible solution is the development of biohybrid scaffolds with textile reinforcement to achieve improved mechanical properties. In this article, we present a manufacturing process of bio-inspired fiber reinforcement for an aortic valve scaffold. The reinforcement structure consists of polyvinylidene difluoride monofilament fibers that are biomimetically arranged by a novel winding process. The fibers were embedded and fixated into electrospun polycarbonate urethane on a cylindrical collector. The scaffold was characterized by biaxial tensile strength, bending stiffness, burst pressure and hemodynamically in a mock circulation system. The produced fiber-reinforced scaffold showed adequate acute mechanical and hemodynamic properties. The transvalvular pressure gradient was 3.02 & PLUSMN; 0.26 mmHg with an effective orifice area of 2.12 & PLUSMN; 0.22 cm2. The valves sustained aortic conditions, fulfilling the ISO-5840 standards. The fiber-reinforced scaffold failed in a circumferential direction at a stress of 461.64 & PLUSMN; 58.87 N/m and a strain of 49.43 & PLUSMN; 7.53%. These values were above the levels of tested native heart valve tissue. Overall, we demonstrated a novel manufacturing approach to develop a fiber-reinforced biomimetic scaffold for aortic heart valve tissue engineering. The characterization showed that this approach is promising for an in situ valve replacement.
AB - The application of tissue-engineered heart valves in the high-pressure circulatory system is still challenging. One possible solution is the development of biohybrid scaffolds with textile reinforcement to achieve improved mechanical properties. In this article, we present a manufacturing process of bio-inspired fiber reinforcement for an aortic valve scaffold. The reinforcement structure consists of polyvinylidene difluoride monofilament fibers that are biomimetically arranged by a novel winding process. The fibers were embedded and fixated into electrospun polycarbonate urethane on a cylindrical collector. The scaffold was characterized by biaxial tensile strength, bending stiffness, burst pressure and hemodynamically in a mock circulation system. The produced fiber-reinforced scaffold showed adequate acute mechanical and hemodynamic properties. The transvalvular pressure gradient was 3.02 & PLUSMN; 0.26 mmHg with an effective orifice area of 2.12 & PLUSMN; 0.22 cm2. The valves sustained aortic conditions, fulfilling the ISO-5840 standards. The fiber-reinforced scaffold failed in a circumferential direction at a stress of 461.64 & PLUSMN; 58.87 N/m and a strain of 49.43 & PLUSMN; 7.53%. These values were above the levels of tested native heart valve tissue. Overall, we demonstrated a novel manufacturing approach to develop a fiber-reinforced biomimetic scaffold for aortic heart valve tissue engineering. The characterization showed that this approach is promising for an in situ valve replacement.
KW - non-woven scaffold
KW - biohybrid heart valve
KW - fiber reinforcement
KW - e-spinning
U2 - 10.3390/bioengineering10091064
DO - 10.3390/bioengineering10091064
M3 - Article
SN - 2306-5354
VL - 10
JO - Bioengineering
JF - Bioengineering
IS - 9
M1 - 1064
ER -