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Neomycin Enhances Glutaraldehyde Crosslinking And Glycosaminoglycan Stability In Bioprosthetic Heart Valves, Vincent Friebe
Neomycin Enhances Glutaraldehyde Crosslinking And Glycosaminoglycan Stability In Bioprosthetic Heart Valves, Vincent Friebe
All Theses
The native heart valve will open and close an astonishing 3 billion times in the average lifetime, implicating immense biomechanical ramifications that necessitate near-flawless structure and functional behavior. Deviations from this idyllic function as a result of heart valve disease (HVD) affect millions of individuals worldwide and result in over 275,000 heart valve replacements worldwide every year. Glutaraldehyde (GLUT) cross-linked porcine aortic heart valves, a common type of bioprosthetic heart valve (BHV), are used frequently in these valve replacement surgeries. The native valve leaflets entail a tri-composite design of type I collagen, elastin and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), each of which are …
The Effect Of Hydrostatic Pressure On Bladder Smooth Muscle Cell Function, Margaret Drumm
The Effect Of Hydrostatic Pressure On Bladder Smooth Muscle Cell Function, Margaret Drumm
All Theses
Previous research has demonstrated that bladder smooth muscle cells (BSMC) respond to various forms of mechanical stimuli, including stretch and hydrostatic pressure, by increases of cell proliferation, activation of intracellular signaling pathways, and alteration of contractile and synthetic marker protein expression. These cellular/molecular level changes are all indicative of a BSMC phenotypic shift that can negatively impact the bladder function at the tissue and organ level. The objective of the present study is to test a hypothesis that bladder SMCs shift their phenotype from contractile to synthetic in response to elevated hydrostatic pressure. Rat bladder SMC cultures were exposed to …
A Pulsatile Bioreactor For Conditioning Tissue Engineered Heart Valves, Leslie Sierad
A Pulsatile Bioreactor For Conditioning Tissue Engineered Heart Valves, Leslie Sierad
All Theses
Tissue engineered constructs with autologous adult stem cells capable of self-repair and growth are highly desired replacements for diseased heart valves. However, the current approaches have inadequate mechanical properties to withstand in vivo implantation. Therefore, our group hypothesized that an in vitro environment of physiological intra-cardiac pressures and flow will stimulate stem cells to differentiate and remodel valvular scaffold constructs before implantation.
The group developed a pneumatic-driven conditioning system (Aim I) consisting of a three-chambered heart valve bioreactor, a pressurized compliance tank, a reservoir tank, one-way valves, pressure-retaining valves, and pressure transducers. The system can be sterilized using conventional autoclaving …