{"doi":"10.1016/j.xjon.2025.08.019","title":"A custom preservation solution extends the ex vivo availability of living heart valves for transplantation","abstract":"Objectives: Although heart valve transplantation delivers living, growth-capable valves, its clinical implementation is restricted by transplant logistics and donor availability. We developed a preservation solution for the ex vivo storage of living valves that maintains tissue viability for at least 7 weeks. Methods: ) and hypothermia (4 °C, control group). Tissue preservation was monitored weekly by evaluating viability (AlamarBlue), metabolic activity (media glucose), histologic tissue preservation (hematoxylin and eosin, Movat Pentachrome stain), and valve cell phenotype (immunostaining). Results: Cold-stored valves (VPS and Hanks' Balanced Salt Solution) demonstrated significantly reduced viability within 1 to 2 weeks ex vivo. In contrast, normothermic storage in VPS preserved leaflet viability for 7 weeks, with consistent glucose metabolism. Immunostaining of normothermic VPS-stored valve leaflets showed a quiescent cell phenotype with little expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin or proliferation markers (relative to baseline), and baseline-level leaflet Vimentin expression. Despite preserved cellular viability, leaflet microarchitectural integrity was only maintained for 3 weeks of ex vivo storage. Conclusions: Normothermic preservation of living valves can support tissue viability for at least 7 weeks ex vivo. With additional preclinical validation, stored living valves could act as a tissue source for heart valve transplantation, with key advantages in enhanced availability and resource-efficiency.","journal":"JTCVS Open","year":2025,"id":576083,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.956,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1484994,"name":"Baoqi Liu","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1484995,"name":"Olivier Pont","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1265655,"name":"V. Reed LaSala","orcid":"0000-0001-8600-7219","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1484996,"name":"Griffin Welsh Daly","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":277553,"name":"Keith Yeager","orcid":"0000-0002-1897-9320","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1484997,"name":"Lucie Chicaud","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1334681,"name":"Richard Zhuang","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1265656,"name":"Şenay Üstünel","orcid":"0000-0001-7860-3870","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":710078,"name":"Kavya Rajesh","orcid":"0000-0002-4180-5118","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1484998,"name":"N Fàbregas Julià","orcid":null,"position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1266196,"name":"Sophia Jackman","orcid":null,"position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":249378,"name":"Sharon Fleischer","orcid":"0000-0002-9852-6697","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":366309,"name":"Emile Bacha","orcid":"0000-0002-7925-848X","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":332245,"name":"Emmanuel Zorn","orcid":"0000-0001-9985-8389","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":314651,"name":"Giovanni Ferrari","orcid":"0000-0002-8863-2496","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":228732,"name":"Gordana Vunjak‐Novakovic","orcid":"0000-0002-9382-1574","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":366310,"name":"David Kalfa","orcid":"0000-0003-4324-6038","position":17,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":847668,"name":"Elizabeth M. Cordoves","orcid":"0000-0002-4546-0743","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":35,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:57:56.636458Z","pmid":"41473078","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}