Comprehensive analyses and prioritization of various swim bladder-derived extracellular matrix in the application of heart valve prosthesis

Abstract Calcification-caused failure and deterioration have become the biggest issues facing traditional biological heart valves (BHVs). Thus, developing new source of materials with the ability to resist calcification is an imperative demand of clinical. In our previous work, swim bladder was proved with superb calcification-resistance as a promising candidate for cardiovascular biomaterials. To find the optimal choice of swim bladder, we herein further investigated four types of swim bladders including grass carp (GC), culter alburnus (CA), carp (C) and silver carp (SC) as material source of the BHVs. Data showed that all the swim bladder was mainly composed of elastin fiber, collagen fiber and glycosaminoglycan (GAG). All the groups except GC group can meet the basic mechanical and materials stability requirements as BHVs. Moreover, the calcification of swim bladder derived from SC was proved significantly lower than that of CA and C groups with in vivo rat subcutaneous implantation model. Additionally, in vitro assays demonstrated that four types of swim bladder exhibited well hemocompatibility and cytocompatibility. Collectively, the superior properties including low calcification, adequate mechanical, high stability, as well as excellent hemocompatibility and cytocompatibility of SC-derived swim bladder endow it great competence as BHVs.