Partial heart transplantation using ice-free cryopreservation – Homovitals 2.0

Authors

  • Ulrich Stock Dept Cardiothoracic Surgery, Fiona Stanley Hospital, Murdoch, Australia & University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia & Medical University South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA
  • Kelvin Brockbank Medical University South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA & Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA & Tissue Testing Technologies LLC, Charleston, SC, USA
  • Taufiek Konrad Rajab University of Arkansas, Medical Sciences,, Arkansas, AR, USA & Children’s Hospital Arkansas, Arkansas, AR,, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21542/gcsp.2025.hvbte.71

Abstract

Introduction: Contemporary heart valve substitutes allow satisfactory replacement option for the older patients (>60 years). For the paediatric, adolescent and young adult population current heart valve replacements lack the ability to grow and regenerate, requiring multiple repeat surgeries. Partial heart transplantation (PHT) represents a new heart valve replacement method overcoming the limitations of current valve substitutes by providing a living heart valve. The limitation of PHT is the short shelf life (48hours) from procurement to implantation.

Methods: Our group has developed an ice-free cryopreservation (IFC) technique (vitrification) to preserve vital extracellular matrix architecture in human heart valves for transplantation. Shortcoming of the original vitrification protocol was a high cytotoxicity of the required chemical supplements. 

Results: We have developed a modified vitrification protocol with adjusted chemical supplements maintaining ECM integrity and viability allowing long-term storage of ovine and porcine PHT valves.

Conclusion: PHT combined with a modified IFC protocol offers an attractive pathway to overcome contemporary limitations of allograft heart valves. This next generation of homovitals allows lomg-term storage and preservation of crucial ECM integrity and cellular viability

Published

2025-10-06

Issue

Vol. 2025 No. HVBTE (2025): Proceedings of the The 10th Heart Valve Biology and Tissue Engineering Meeting

Section

Innovation in Valve Repair and Replacement

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Ulrich Stock, Kelvin Brockbank, Taufiek Konrad Rajab

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.