Biomechanical and structural changes following the decellularization of bovine pericardial tissues for use as a tissue engineering scaffold

To achieve natural scaffolds for tissue engineering applications we decellularized bovine pericardial (BP) tissues according to two different protocols: a novel treatment based on Triton(A (R)) X-100 (12 h, 4 A degrees C) (BP1) and a trypsin/EDTA treatment (37 A degrees C, 48 h) (BP2). Results were compared with commercially available acellular xenogeneic biomaterials, Veritas(A (R)) and Collamed(A (R)). Biomechanical characteristics, high (E-h) and low (E-l) modulus of elasticity, of the fresh untreated tissue varied with the anatomical direction (apex to base (T) to transverse (L)) (mean +/- A SDEV): (41.63 +/- A 14.65-48.12 +/- A 10.19 MPa and 0.27 +/- A 0.05-0.30 +/- A 0.12 MPa respectively). BP1 had no mechanical effect (44.65 +/- A 19.73-52.67 +/- A 7.59 MPa and 0.37 +/- A 0.14-0.37 +/- A 0.11 MPa, respectively) but BP2 resulted in significant decrease in E-h and E-l (20.96 +/- A 8.17-36.82 +/- A 3.23 MPa and 0.20 +/- A 0.06-0.23 +/- A 0.06 MPa). Hysteresis ratio (h) varied (19-26 % of the loading energy) independently of anatomical direction. Glycosaminoglycans content was unaffected by BP1, while 22 % of chondroitin/dermatan sulphate and 60 % of hyaluronan were removed after BP2 treatment. Endothelial cell adhesion was achieved after 24 h and 3 days cell culture.