Isolation of Human Primary Valve Cells for In vitro Disease ModelingRolando A. Cuevas 1, Claire C. Chu 1, William J. Moorhead III 1, Ryan Wong 1, Ibrahim Sultan 2, Cynthia St. Hilaire 1,3
1Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, and the Pittsburgh Heart, Lung, and Blood Vascular Medicine Institute, University of Pittsburgh, 2Division of Cardiac Surgery, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh and Heart and Vascular Institute, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 3Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh
This protocol describes the collection of human aortic valves extracted during surgical aortic valve replacement procedures or from cadaveric tissue, and the subsequent isolation, expansion, and characterization of patient specific primary valve endothelial and interstitial cells. Included are important details regarding the processes needed to ensure cell viability and phenotype specificity.