title: In vitro properties and performance of glutaraldehyde-crosslinked bovine pericardial bioprostheses treated with glutamic acid.
abstract: Calcification is one of the major causes of failure of heart valve bioprostheses (HVBs) derived from glutaraldehyde (GA)-processed bovine pericardium (BP) or porcine aortic valves. New crosslinking reagent procedures are still far from giving satisfactory results, and this is the main reason why GA is still the reagent of choice for the fixation of native tissue intended for HVB manufacture. Nevertheless, two new findings with respect to GA processing may significantly improve HVB performance postimplantation: the finding that increasing concentrations of GA result in a decrease in calcification; the blocking of free aldehyde usually by nucleophyles or the treatment of processed material at low pH. This work investigates the in vitro properties of BP fixed with GA followed by the treatment with glutamic acid under alkaline conditions in order to prepare BP materials with lower calcification potential postimplantation. In comparison to conventional processing, except for the tensile strength that was slightly lower, elongation and toughness were higher than the accepted values. No significant differences were observed in the performance indexes (mean pressure gradient, mean effective area, regurgitant fraction, performance and efficiency indexes) with wear resistance over 150 × 10⁶ cycles. These results indicate that the processing of BP described in this work may be of potential use in the manufacture of HVBs.
authors: Braile Biomédica Indústria Comércio e Representações SA, São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors: Maria Christiane Valéria Braga
authors: MC
authors: Braile
authors: Nelly Cristina
authors: NC
authors: Carnevalli
authors: Gilberto
authors: G
authors: Goissis
authors: Vladimir Aparecido
authors: VA
authors: Ramirez
authors: Domingo Marcolino
authors: DM
authors: Braile