Einladung zum Vortrag Am Donnerstag, den 19.11.2015 um 16.00 Uhr spricht im Seminarraum HIA, 2. Etage Professor J. Koudy Williams Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Thema: "In Vivo Development of Antibody-Directed Self Seeding Heart Valves" Abstract: Valvular heart disease is a common diagnosis worldwide, with many of these patients eventually needing an operative intervention. There are significant limitations to existing heart valve replacements, including their inability to grow with patients, a life-time anticoagulation therapy with mechanical valves, and progressive tissue degeneration with bioscaffolds. Tissue-engineering techniques may play a prominent future role in the development of heart valve replacement therapy. More recent laboratory efforts have focused on identifying appropriate scaffold materials, progenitor cell sources, and seeding/conditioning techniques. However, this involves the time-consuming task of isolating and culturing cells before adding them to a valve construct and then conditioning the resulting construct in vitro, a process that can take many weeks or even months. As an alternative, we proposed to develop a heart valve bioscaffold with antibody-directed reseeding properties. The goal is to develop a heart valve construct that is easy to fabricate, has short preparation time (hours), and the ability to remodel and grow with the patient. The results of an animal trial in sheep revealed that a CD133mAb conjugation process in decellularized porcine valves resulted in progressive recellularization of the valve leaflets and the PAGS, starting with cells adhering to the luminal surface, followed by progression into the interstitium and media, respectively, by 1 and 3 months post-implantation. We believe that antibody-directed recellularization may represent a paradigm shift in tissue engineering approaches to organ and tissue regeneration, and not just for valve replacement. This novel approach to recapitulating native tissue structures, by allowing the body to "re-develop" naturally rather than trying to force a population of cells into constructs with complicated architecture is likely to have implications for not only heart valves (pulmonary, mitral, aortic) but other vascular and nonvascular structures of varying complexities. Gäste sind herzlich willkommen! Prof. Dr. Stefan Jockenhövel Tissue Engineering & Textile Implants