Design and Testing of a Pulsatile Conditioning System for Dynamic Endothelialization of Polyphenol-Stabilized Tissue Engineered Heart Valves.

Heart valve tissue engineering requires biocompatible and hemocompatible scaffolds that undergo remodeling and repopulation, but that also withstand harsh mechanical forces immediately following implantation. We hypothesized that reversibly stabilized acellular porcine valves, seeded with endothelial cells and conditioned in pulsatile bioreactors would pave the way for next generations of tissue engineered heart valves (TEHVs). A novel valve conditioning system was first designed, manufactured and tested to adequately assess TEHVs.