Inflammatory responses of tissue-engineered xenografts in a clinical scenario

Acellular tissue-engineered (ATE) xenografts and homografts are used in clinical cardiovascular surgery. The present study examined the specific role of carbohydrate antigen (a-Gal and T-antigen) in immune response after decellularisation in tissue-engineered xenografts (porcine pulmonary artery and bovine jugular vein). An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to ascertain whether implantation of bioprostheses, ATE xenografts and mechanical valve replacement result in augmentation of anti-a-Gal IgM antibodies within eight days of surgery (each group, n = 6). Kinetics of host inflammatory response on surgically explanted ATE xenografts was also studied. Immunostaining for a-Gal and T-antigen detected the presence of them in the native tissue but they were absent in processed ATE xenografts from the same tissue. A significant increase in the concentration of anti-a-Gal IgM antibodies was observed in the serum of bioprosthetic valve recipients as compared to ATE xenograft recipients (P