Dewy C van der Valk, Casper F T van der Ven, Mark C Blaser, Joshua M Grolman, Pin-Jou Wu, Owen S Fenton, Lang H Lee, Mark W Tibbitt, Jason L Andresen, Jennifer R Wen, Anna H Ha, Fabrizio Buffolo, Alain van Mil, Carlijn V C Bouten, Simon C Body, David J Mooney, Joost P G Sluijter, Masanori Aikawa, Jesper Hjortnaes, Robert Langer, Elena Aikawa
In calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD), microcalcifications originating from nanoscale calcifying vesicles disrupt the aortic valve (AV) leaflets, which consist of three (biomechanically) distinct layers: the fibrosa, spongiosa, and ventricularis. CAVD has no pharmacotherapy and lacks in vitro models as a result of complex valvular biomechanical features surrounding resident mechanosensitive valvular interstitial cells (VICs). We measured layer-specific mechanical properties of the human AV and engineered a three-dimensional (3D)-bioprinted CAVD model that recapitulates leaflet layer biomechanics for the first time...
May 3, 2018: Nanomaterials