Successful Reconstruction of the Right Ventricular Outflow Tract by Implantation of Thymus Stem Cell Engineered Graft in Growing Swine

Summary: Graft cellularization holds great promise in overcoming the limitations associated with prosthetic materials currently used in corrective cardiac surgery. In this study, the authors evaluated the advantages of graft cellularization for right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction in a novel porcine model. After 4.5 months from implantation, improved myocardial strain, better endothelialization and cardiomyocyte incorporation, and reduced fibrosis were observed in the cellularized grafts compared with the acellular grafts. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first demonstration of successful right ventricular outflow tract correction using bioengineered grafts in a large animal model. Key Words: congenital heart disease, reconstruction, right ventricular outflow swine model, tissue engineering, tract stem cells