WFIRM scientists are working toward the day when they can engineer heart valves in the laboratory that will be perfect matches for patients needing valve replacement surgery.

The process begins with a pig valve, which is commonly used to replace human heart valves today. The Institute's goal is to remove all cells from the valve -- and replace them with the patient's own cells.

Removal of the original cells leaves the matrices, or support materials, which consists mainly of collagen and elastin. This matrix maintains the structure of the valve and has similar functional properties.

The next step is to place a patient's own cells onto the scaffold. These cells can be obtained from a blood sample and multiplied in the laboratory. Once a valve has enough cells, it would be placed in a heart valve "bioreactor," equipment that pre-conditions or “exercises” it so it would develop the properties it needs to function in the body. The bioreactor has computer-controlled fluid flow, mimicking the natural function in the human heart valve.

Watch a heart valve being "exercised" in a bioreactor.