Biologically engineered heart valves grow with the recipient in pilot study
June 10, 2025 — In a newly published pilot study, Department of Biomedical Engineering researchers showed that biologically engineered valved conduits grew with the recipients over a 52-week period.
This shows the clinical potential of biologically engineered valves for right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction and long-term valve growth in children. Replacement heart valves that grow with children are an unmet clinical need.
Valves were fabricated by including an inflow segment to their novel tri-tube valve allowing for myocardial anastomosis as done in a typical right ventricular outflow tract surgical repair. This was done in the same model as a previous study of just the tri-tube valve published in Science Translational Medicine, which reported valves increased in size while functioning with low systolic gradients and less than moderate regurgitation.
Three of the research team’s authors are part of the Department of Biomedical Engineering community: Bob Tranquillo, Professor; Zeeshan Syedain, Senior Research Associate; and Jack Maher, PhD student. The team published their findings in Cardiovascular Research.
The study was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the Maslowski Charitable Trust.