The biological cardiac valves obtained from engineered animals and able to avoid the phenomenon of degeneration are ready: they were developed thanks to an international research led by Italy, with the University of Padua, and published in the journal Nature Medicine. The research is coordinated by the clinical immunologist Emanuele Cozziprofessor of the Department of Cardio-Thoraco-Vascular Sciences and Public Health of the University of Padua.
About 400,000 patients every year in the world need the replacement of a heart valve and those of the biological type, that is of animal derivation, are the most suitable as they are biocompatible. Unlike mechanical valves, they do not require anticoagulant therapy.
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However, observes Cozzi, “biological valves, used for about 60% of valve replacements, have some drawbacks, mainly due to the fact that they contain sugar antigens that are not present in human valves”. The antigens, continues Cozzi, “induce an immune response that attacks the tissue of the valves themselves and causes their premature deterioration, especially in young subjects with an efficient immune system. To avoid this danger, young patients receive mechanical valves, which however require anticoagulant therapy: this imposes on the patient lifestyles and work with considerable limitations, avoiding everything that can cause trauma and consequent haemorrhages that are difficult to contain “.
In the research, 1,668 patients who received biological valves at the heart surgery centers of the Bellvitge Hospital in Barcelona, the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital of Barcelona, the University Hospital of Manitoba, the University Hospital of Barcelona were examined for five years. Nantes and the Hospital-University of Padua; the aim was to clarify whether the antibody response directed against the sugar molecules present on the animal-derived valves could lead to early valve deterioration through a calcification process.
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“Our study has shown that, from the first month following the implantation of biological valves, the level of antibodies directed against sugar molecules increases significantly – continues Cozzi -. In an animal model we have seen how effectively the presence of these antibodies is in able in a month to cause calcium deposits in biological valves and therefore to determine their deterioration. On the contrary, if we implant valves from animals engineered so as not to produce the sugar molecules, the antibodies do not ‘attack’ the valve and do not induce calcification of tissues “.
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