A Collagen Valve Could Treat Pediatric Heart Disease

Researchers from the BioTis laboratory (Inserm/University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France) have developed a pulmonary valve using human collagen. Such a device could revolutionize the treatment of pediatric heart diseases like tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart malformation characterized by pulmonary stenosis. In this disease, the blood flow from the right ventricle of the heart to the pulmonary artery is restricted, preventing normal blood flow to the lungs and leading to a decrease in oxygen levels in the patient's blood.

This anomaly can be corrected through surgery, which aims to restore the normal blood flow to the pulmonary artery by widening it. This involves removing the pulmonary valve, which then needs to be reconstructed either using synthetic materials like Teflon membranes or through so-called "biological" leaflets made from chemically treated animal tissue.

The team led by Inserm researcher Fabien Kawecki has developed a "next-generation" biologic pulmonary valve made from collagen-rich leaflets derived from cell cultures. The researchers relied on the approach developed over the past decade at the BioTis laboratory, which involves cultivating human cells in the laboratory to obtain collagen-rich extracellular matrix deposits.

These collagen deposits form leaflets that can be used to design, as in this study, pulmonary valves. A significant advantage is that these fully biological and nonchemically denatured leaflets are not subject to rejection by the body.

The team has already filed a patent for the use of the biomaterial designed in the laboratory as a pulmonary valve and hopes to test its utility in various cardiovascular diseases in adults and children in the future.

Source: MEDspace