Porcine small intestinal submucosa mitral valve material responses support acute somatic growth

Conceptually, a tissue engineered heart valve (TEHV) would be especially appealing in the pediatric setting since small size and somatic growth constraints would be alleviated. Here, we utilized porcine small intestinal submucosa (PSIS) for valve replacement... … the Dacron tubes housing the PSIS valves were measured in order to secure the valve‐in‐ conduit (Figure 1) in the mitral position within a pulse duplicator system (ViVitro Labs, Victoria, BC) … A pulse duplicator system… ... Our findings suggest that the altered structural responses of PSIS, post-fatigue, rather than de novo tissue formation, are primarily responsible for the valve’s ability to accommodate somatic growth during the acute phase (90 days) following mitral valve replacement...