THE INTRINSIC DURABILITY OF AORTIC VALVE ECM IN ABSENCE OF CELLULAR MAINTENANCE

摘要

Without cellular maintenance, AV leaflet fiber network became unfolded, stretched out. and thinned during simulated function for up to 4 weeks. We found that elastin fibers were absence in the flow loop exercised leaflets (Fig. 3). Note that elastin fibers were preserved in the static control that subjected to the same solution environment. Tt could be concluded that degradation along can not explain the absence of elastin in fatigued leaflets. We speculated that mechanical factors caused the loss of elastin fibers that lack of stabilizing crosslinks. The loss of elastin likely accelerated unfolding and straightening of collagen fibers. Mechanically, the structural alteration changed the reference status of fatigued tissue and resulted in a lower net tissue extensibility. We conclude that, in absence of cellular maintenance, decellularized valve leaflets experience rapid structural deterioration due to lack of exogenous stabilizing crosslinks and the structural disruption ss irreversible and cumulative. Apparently, recellularization is a key for the successful development of TEHV via decellularization approach.