Endothelial cells

1
Tissue Engineering uses a patients own cells on a
replacement heart valve grown in the laboratory.
This will mean that the patient will have a fully
functioning heart valve, without the need for
life-long medication and will suffer no immune
response to the cells.
Endothelial cells
Heart valves are lined with endothelial cells,
which gives a non-thrombogenic coating.
Therefore, a TE heart valve also needs to be
lined with endothelial cells.
Endothelial cells can be differentiated from
haematopoietic stem cells taken from a patients
blood. This prevents any invasive procedures
being carried out to obtain cells from patients.
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