Heart valves from pigs and the porcine endogenous retrovirus: experimental and clinical data to assess the probability of porcine endogenous retrovirus infection in human subjects.
OBJECTIVE
Replacement of heart valves in human subjects has become a routine procedure in cardiac operations. We sought to investigate whether commercially available glutaraldehyde-fixed porcine heart valve prostheses cause porcine endogenous retrovirus infection in human subjects because recent studies revealed that human cells can be infected with porcine endogenous retrovirus.


METHODS
Blood samples of 18 patients who underwent aortic or mitral valve replacement with porcine heart valves were collected 6 months to 3 years after operation and tested for porcine endogenous retrovirus by means of polymerase chain reaction and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. In addition, we tried to trace porcine endogenous retrovirus in 3 commercially available, glutaraldehyde-fixed, porcine heart valves.


RESULTS
Porcine endogenous retrovirus can be easily detected in native porcine heart valves and degrades completely within 1 week of fixation in glutaraldehyde. In all 3 commercially available porcine heart valves, no traces of porcine endogenous retrovirus were found. All blood samples showed negative test results for the porcine endogenous retrovirus genome.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that glutaraldehyde fixation of porcine heart valves reliably prevents cross-species transmission of porcine endogenous retrovirus.
Leibniz Research Laboratories for Biotechnology and Artificial Organs (LEBAO), Hannover, Germany. moza@thg.mh-hannover.de
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Moza
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Mertsching
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Herden
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Bader
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Haverich
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000818:Animals; D001021:Aortic Valve / Q000601:surgery / Q000821:virology; D001705:Bioprosthesis / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000821:virology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D020077:Endogenous Retroviruses / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005260:Female; D006349:Heart Valve Diseases / Q000601:surgery; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000821:virology*; D019918:Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008943:Mitral Valve / Q000601:surgery / Q000821:virology; D009000:Monocytes / Q000821:virology; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D012192:Retroviridae Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000635:transmission / Q000821:virology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013552:Swine; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous / Q000009:adverse effects
D004279:DNA, Viral; D012367:RNA, Viral