Radial artery as an autologous cell source for valvular tissue engineering efforts

To create a viable tissue‐engineered aortic valve, it is important to identify suitable autologous cell sources that may be seeded onto a biocompatible scaffold. This study focused on the radial artery (RA) as one possible source, investigated optimal culture conditions, and determined the usefulness of small intestinal submucosa (SIS) as a scaffold for tissue‐engineering. Porcine RA cells were cultured on either two‐dimensional (2D) 100‐mm dishes or three‐dimensional (3D) 1‐cm2 SIS sheets, producing cell–scaffold composites (CSCs). Both 2D and 3D cultures were maintained in either Medium 199 (M199) or endothelial growth media (EGM) to determine optimal growth conditions. Cellular phenotype and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) profiles were determined by immunoblotting of cell lysates and zymography of conditioned media, respectively. Cellular invasion was analyzed immunohistochemically on CSC tissue sections. We show that the RA contains phenotypes consistent with those found in the normal aortic valve. EGM, compared with M199, promotes the invasion and remodeling of SIS by RA cells, which is crucial in the process of replacing the foreign tissue scaffold prior to implantation. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show that the RA is a suitable source for the generation of a tissue‐engineered valve. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res, 2006