2. Academic Validation
  3. Porcine pericardium crosslinked with POSS-PEG-CHO possesses weakened immunogenicity and anti-calcification property

Porcine pericardium crosslinked with POSS-PEG-CHO possesses weakened immunogenicity and anti-calcification property

  • Mater Today Bio. 2025 Mar 18:32:101677. doi: 10.1016/j.mtbio.2025.101677.
Xiaobo Yu 1 2 3,  Jingli Ding 4,  Yingjie He 5,  Shunbo Wei 1 2 3,  Xing Chen 1 2 3,  Qiujie Luo 1 2 3,  Yuqing Zhang 1 2 3,  Chen Qian 1 2 3,  Jiahui Wang 1 2 3,  Mengjie Hu 1 2 3,  Xiang Zhang 1 2 3,  Cuifen Lu 5,  Jinping Liu 1 2 3,  Jianliang Zhou 1 2 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Zhongnan Hospital, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, 430071, China.
  • 2 Hubei Provincial Engineering Research Center of Minimally Invasive Cardiovascular Surgery, Wuhan, Hubei Province, 430071, China.
  • 3 Wuhan Clinical Research Center for Minimally Invasive Treatment of Structural Heart Disease, Wuhan, Hubei Province, 430071, China.
  • 4 Department of Gastroenterology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, 430071, China.
  • 5 Hubei Key Laboratory for Precision Synthesis of Small Molecule Pharmaceuticals & Ministry-of-Education Key Laboratory for the Synthesis and Application of Organic Functional Molecules, Wuhan, Hubei Province, 430062, China.
PMID: 40242484 DOI: 10.1016/j.mtbio.2025.101677
Abstract

Valvular heart disease (VHD) poses a thorny problem in cardiovascular diseases. The most effective treatment for VHD is heart valve replacement. Biological heart valve (BHV) is more favored than mechanical heart valve due to the maturity of transcatheter heart valve replacement (THVR) and the absence of the need for lifelong anticoagulant use. However, traditional commercial BHV suffers degeneration within 10-15 years because of calcification caused by the cross-linking reagent, glutaraldehyde. Considering the remarkable properties of POSS, PEG, and the star-like eight-arm structure, we fabricated POSS-PEG-PP, which is a decellularized porcine pericardium (DPP) crosslinked by a star-like eight-arm cross-linker octafunctionalized POSS of benzaldehyde-terminated polyethylene glycol (POSS-PEG-CHO) based on the Schiff's base reaction. POSS-PEG-PP exhibits more intense fiber arrangement and better mechanical properties than GLUT-PP (glutaraldehyde crosslinked DPP). The results also show that the cytocompatibility, endothelialization, and hemocompatibility of POSS-PEG-PP are outstanding in vitro. Subsequently, in vivo assessments demonstrate that POSS-PEG-PP has anti-inflammatory and anti-calcification abilities. Furthermore, RNA Sequencing analysis of subcutaneous implants suggests that the intervention of AMPK and IL-17 signaling pathways plays an important role in the inflammatory and immune responses regulation of POSS-PEG-PP. Therefore, POSS-PEG-PP is an excellent substitute material for BHVs and is expected to be clinically transformed.

Keywords

Biological heart valve; Calcification; Crosslinking; Immunology; Polymer.

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