Updated 10/23/2008 07:16 PM
New research on heart valve replacement
ITHACA, N.Y. -- A machine called the Fabber can make any 3D structure a user tells it to make through a computer program. Cornell researchers hope to use it to replicate a person's heart valve.
"What we would like to do is actually look at the complex three dimensional anatomy of that patient and then try to replicate that in our replacement tissue," said Jonathan Butcher, a Cornell University Biomedical Engineering assistant professor.
That replacement tissue substance is still being developed. It needs to be strong enough to hold itself together, while containing similar properties to an actual heart valve. The researchers say a tissue replacement should be better than traditional replacement sources like animal or mechanical valves. The body doesn't always adjust well to those sources.
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"This way, we hope, will work better because it avoids the issues of rejection, it avoids the problems with mechanical valves actually causing blood clots," said Philip Cheung, a Cornell University Master of Engineering student.
The Fabber currently creates a silicon-type structure. The hope is that these silicone structures can be made out of hydro-gel, which is a gel that cells can live in
"The next step, after we've managed to produce a hydro-gel silicone valve would be to figure out how to give the correct stimuli to that heart valve so that the heart cells can figure out what it is that they're supposed to do and so that we can basically tell it ‘we want you to become a heart valve because you need to go inside somebody,’" said Cheung.
This technology is far from completion. The researchers hope to have a hydro-gel structure created within the next year or two, but still need to find out how it reacts in a human body. The researchers also say once this technology is perfected, it will be used for infants in need of heart valve replacements.
Normally, a person who has that surgery done as a baby will need it done multiple times as he or she grows. These new valve replacements would grow with the body and eliminate the need for additional surgeries.