Tissue-Engineered Heart Valves: A Regenerative Medicine Approach
McGowan Institute faculty member, Michael Sacks, PhD, William Kepler Whiteford Professor, University of Pittsburgh Department of Bioengineering, is working with researchers at Children's Hospital of Boston to grow tissue-engineered heart valves in the lab. The team is using blood cells from sheep to grow the heart valves around polymer scaffolding and then implant them, where they have worked successfully for up to 20 weeks.
“The ultimate goal is to create heart valves for children using their own tissue, a technique that is designed to allow the valves to grow along with the children's bodies,” said Dr. Sacks.
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