Development and evaluation of a novel combined perfusion decellularization heart-lung model for tissue engineering of bioartificial heart-lung scaffolds

Background: Bioengineered transplantable heart-lung scaffolds could be potentially lifesaving in a large number of congenital and acquired cardiothoracic disorders including terminal heart-lung disease. Methods: We decellularized heart-lung organ-blocks from rats (n = 10) by coronary and tracheal perfusion with ionic detergents in a modified Langendorff circuit. Results: In the present project, we were able to achieve complete decellularization of the heart-lung organ-block. Decellularized heart-lung organ-blocks lacked intracellular components but maintained structure of the cellular walls with collagen and elastic fibers. Conclusions: We present a novel model of combined perfusion and decellularization of heart-lung organ-blocks. This model is the first step on the pathway to creating bioengineered transplantable heart-lung scaffolds. We believe that further development of this technology could provide a life-saving conduit, significantly reducing the risks of heart-lung failure surgery and improving postoperative quality of life.