Biodegradable amino acid-hydrogel porous scaffold for the tissue engineering of the heart valve

A novel biodegradable amino acid-hydrogel porous construct, with free amino acid groups that are capable of attachment of cell adhesion proteins or growth factors, has been used to seed bovine aortic valve endothelial cells, bovine valve interstitial cells and bovine aortic endothelial cells. All the cells were observed to adhere to the scaffolds by fluorescent staining of the scaffolds with cells. Alamar Blue assay was also used to detect viability of the cells in the scaffolds. The studies demonstrate that the feasibility of using the amino acid-hydrogel construct as a scaffold, to seed autologous cells, to tissue engineer heart valves, as an alternative solution to the problems associated with existing valve replacement therapies.