NEW, NATIVE HEART VALVES AND BLOOD VESSELS

                          Eindhoven University of Technology
Budget:             € 9.000.000
 

From a low life expectancy…
More than a million people in Europe and the United States undergo heart valve surgery or bypass operations each year. Due to the ageing population and the adverse health effects of our Western lifestyle that number is expected to double to almost a million heart valve operations and more than a million bypass operations each year by the year 2050. The life expectancy of patients after heart valve replacement is substantially lower than for healthy individuals, especially when the valve is replaced at a young age. The difference is directly related to the type and quality of the implanted valve.
For bypass and haemodialysis patients, increasing use is made of artificial blood vessels as “bypass” or as haemodialysis access. Initially, the patient’s own veins and arteries are used for these procedures, but certainly if the procedure needs to be repeated, they are often no longer available or usable and artificial blood vessels have to be used. The quality of these artificial vessels is not good enough right now and patients often have to take medication for the rest of their lives.
 
© BMM / Rogier Trompert Medical Art
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…to a healthier, longer life
Development of living, native valves or blood vessels from the patient’s own cells by tissue engineering offers unprecedented opportunities. For example, we aim to place a mould composed of instructive biodegradable synthetic material in the form of a heart valve to attract and home-in stem cells. When these stem cells attach, they produce connective tissue that is needed for healthy valve tissue. Once the tissue becomes strong enough, the inserted mould biologically degrades and a new, living heart valve remains. It is expected that patients who undergo this type of heart valve replacement will have the same life expectancy as their healthy peers. The same innovative route is also possible for manufacturing blood vessels from biodegradable synthetic material. The expectation is that these vessels will function longer and without problems and make medication superfluous.
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Partners
The following companies and institutes work together to make a success of iValve:
 
 
     
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Publications
  • Smits A, Driessen-Mol A, Bouten C, Baaijens F. A mesofluidics-based test platform for systematic development of scaffolds for in situ cardiovascular tissue engineering. Tissue Eng Part C Methods. 2012 Jan 8. [Epub ahead of print]
  • Mol A, Smits AI, Bouten CV, Baaijens FP. Tissue engineering of heart valves: advances and current challenges. Expert Rev Med Devices. 2009 May;6(3):259-75. Abstract
 

Book chapter
  • Simonet, M. Driessen-Mol, A. Baaijens, F.P.T. and Bouten, C.V.C. (2011). Heart valve tissue regeneration. In: Bosworth, L. and Downes, S., Electrospinning for Tissue Regeneration () Cambridge UK, Woodhead Publishing Limited. ISBN 1 84569 741 3
      

More info

 The person with our heart valves won't be a patient anymore

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Contact

BioMedical Materials
Urmonderbaan 20/A
NL-6167 RD GELEEN
NETHERLANDS
T +31 (46) 702 2280
E info@bmm-program.nl
Last updated on 2012-08-13