title: Decreased mechanical properties of heart valve tissue constructs cultured in platelet lysate as compared to fetal bovine serum.
abstract: In autologous heart valve tissue engineering, there is an ongoing search for alternatives of fetal bovine serum (FBS). Human platelet-lysate (PL) might be a promising substitute. In the present article, we aimed to examine the tissue formation, functionality, and mechanical properties of engineered three-dimensional tissue constructs cultured in PL as a substitute for FBS. Our results show that tissue constructs that were cultured in PL and FBS produce similar amounts of collagen, glycosoaminoglycans, and collagen crosslinks, and that the cellular phenotype remains unchanged. Nevertheless, mechanical testing showed that the ultimate tensile strength in PL constructs was on average approximately three times lower as compared to FBS (0.25 vs. 0.74 MPa, respectively, p<0.01), and also the elastic modulus was almost three times lower (1.33 MPa of PL constructs vs. 3.94 MPa of FBS constructs, p<0.01). Additional tests indicated that this difference might be explained by different collagen fiber architecture possibly due to increased production of matrix-degrading proteases by cells cultured in PL. In summary, our results indicate that PL is not preferred for the culture of strong heart valve tissue constructs.
authors.affiliation: Department of BioMedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. d.v.geemen@tue.nl
authors.forename: Daphne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: van Geemen
authors.forename: Paul W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Riem Vis
authors.forename: Sarita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Soekhradj-Soechit
authors.forename: Joost P G
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Sluijter
authors.forename: Moniek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de Liefde-van Beest
authors.forename: Jolanda
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kluin
authors.forename: Carlijn V C
authors.initials: CV
authors.lastname: Bouten
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000187:drug effects; D001792:Blood Platelets / Q000166:cytology*; D002417:Cattle; D002457:Cell Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003094:Collagen / Q000378:metabolism; D003470:Culture Media / Q000494:pharmacology; D055119:Elastic Modulus / Q000187:drug effects; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis; D006801:Humans; D058628:Myofibroblasts / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D044967:Serum / Q000378:metabolism*; D046509:Tissue Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D002457:Cell Extracts; D003470:Culture Media; D003094:Collagen