Design and fabrication of three – dimensional scaffolds for tissue engineering of human heart valves

Aims: The physiological design, the selection of scaffold material and the fabrication technique play a crucial role in the development of tissue engineered heart valves. In our current experiment, we recreate the complex anatomic structure of a human heart valve using stereolithography and developed a new fabrication technique to shape regenerating human heart valve tissue.

Methods and results: In this experiment a human aortic homograft was scanned with an X-ray computer tomograph (CT). The data derived from the X-ray CT were processed by a computer-aided design program to reconstruct a human heart valve three-dimensionally. Based on this stereolithographic model a silicon valve model resembling a human aortic valve was generated. By taking advantage of the thermoplastic property of the polymeric scaffold material (poly-4-hydroxybutyrate, P4HB; Tepha Inc., MA), we molded a three-dimensional scaffold for tissue engineering of human heart valves. The valve scaffold showed only±3–4% difference in height, length and inner diameter compared with the homograft.

Conclusion: This technical report demonstrates the feasibility of using rapid prototyping techniques to recreate the anatomic structure of an human heart valve. Additionally, the newly developed fabrication technique allows to fabricate three-dimensional scaffolds for tissue engineering of human heart valves through a thermal processing technique without requiring any suture materials. This technique may be useful for the fabrication of custom-made, patient-specific polymeric cardiovascular scaffolds for tissue engineering.