Partial spider silk as scaffold for tissue engineering the aortic valve

Abstract

The aortic valve constitutes a complex tissue that has to unobtrusively operate in a continuous mode, in order to sufficiently supply the systemic circulation with oxygenated blood. Severe aortic valve diseases though result in a tissue function no longer competent to meet the innately demanding biomechanical criteria. Conventional treatment approaches may temporarily alleviate symptomatic patients nonetheless have long been associated with great limitations. Tissue engineering holds great promise to cope with drawbacks of to date status in diseased aortic valve treatment, although has not been fully explored yet. Recombinantly synthesized spider silk has undoubtedly opened a wide range of application areas where sound mechanical properties are required and hence, it might be considered an ideal aortic valve scaffold. In this study, partial spider silk utilized to coat surfaces as well as configured into 3D matrices was extensively evaluated in terms of cell adherence, proliferation, and tissue-specific protein secretion. To provide comparable information, cell-seeded protein coatings and 3D constructs in the forms of foam and fiber were also exposed to vigorous fluid dynamics. Results indicated profound cell compliance with host material in general but most importantly, significant cell growth in the dynamically conditioned fibroblasts and endothelial cells inside the silk variants. In addition, protein-coated substrates and fabricated scaffolds subjected to shear stresses were interestingly shown to facilitate protein synthesis by seeded cells in a higher degree. In conclusion, recombinantly synthesized spider silk can be considerably included in future tissue engineering the aortic valve studies.