Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital

To improve our knowledge of cellular and molecular neotissue formation, a murine model of the TEVG was recently developed. The grafts were implanted as infrarenal vena cava interposition grafts in C57BL/6 mice. This model achieves similar results to those achieved in our clinical investigation, but over a far shortened time-course.

In order to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying neotissue formation and stenosis development in tissue engineered heart valves, a murine model of heterotopic heart valve transplantation was developed. A pulmonary heart valve was transplanted to recipient using the heterotopic heart transplantation technique.

Graft stenosis poses a critical obstacle in tissue engineered airway replacement. To investigate cellular mechanisms underlying stenosis, we utilize a murine model of tissue engineered tracheal replacement with seeded bone marrow mononuclear cells (BM-MNC). Here, we detail our protocol, including scaffold manufacturing, BM-MNC isolation, graft seeding, and implantation.

Here, we describe a correlative workflow for the excision, pressurization, fixation, and imaging of the murine pulmonary valve to determine the gross conformation and local extracellular matrix structures.