A Method to Enhance Re-Endothelialization of Tissue Engineered Decellularized Allograft Heart Scaffolds

• Main Author: Desai, Leena
• Other Authors: Korbutt, Gregory (Surgery)
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Tissue Engineering; Decellularization; Re-Endothelialization
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10048/513

Allograft tissue is used to reconstruct cardiac birth defects but induces an immune response resulting in allo-sensitization. Decellularization reduces the immune response, however, acellular vascular tissue is thrombogenic. In-vitro endothelialization may attenuate thrombogenicity. Here we offer our work, which determines a novel method of endothelial cell attachment using Arginine-Glycine-Aspartic Acid (RGD) peptides. We show that an RGD-FITC peptide can be bound to a decellularized ovine cardiac scaffold. RGD modification increases HUVEC cell adhesion to the surface at 3 days of static incubation in-vitro compared to decellularized tissue alone. Repetition using a decellularized human scaffold shows similar results. Cleavage of the potentially immunogenic FITC label retains our RGD peptide. In summary, we determine that decellularized allografts show enhanced HUVEC cell adhesion when modified with an RGD peptide under static conditions. This may increase cell retention in-vivo leading to a decellularized cardiac allograft repopulated with functional autologous cells from the recipient. === Experimental Surgery