The implantation of bioprosthetic heart valves (BHVs) is increasingly becoming the treatment
of choice in patients requiring heart valve replacement surgery. Unlike mechanical heart …

Calcification plays a major role in the failure of bioprosthetic and other tissue heart valve
substitutes. Tissue valve calcification is initiated primarily within residual cells that have …

Considerable progress has been made in recent years toward elucidating a conceptual
framework that integrates the dynamic functional structure, mechanical properties, and …

Background—Elastin calcification is a widespread feature of vascular pathology, and
circumstantial evidence exists for a correlation between elastin degradation and …

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the leading causes of death in the Western world.
The replacement of damaged vessels and valves has been practiced since the 1950's …

Background Glutaraldehyde fixation does not guarantee complete tissue biocompatibility in
current clinical bioprosthetic heart valves (BHV s). Particularly, circulating anti‐α G al human …

Scaffolds for heart valve tissue engineering must function immediately after implantation but
also need to tolerate cell infiltration and gradual remodeling. We hypothesized that …

In recent years, the number of heart valve replacements has multiplied with valve diseases
because of aging populations and the surge in rheumatic heart disease in young people …

Background—Maintaining the integrity of arterial elastin is vital for the prevention of
abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) development. We hypothesized that in vivo stabilization of …

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is an established treatment alternative to
surgical valve replacement in high-risk patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis. The …