Expression of COLLAGEN 1 and ELASTIN Genes in Mitral Valvular Interstitial Cells within Microfiber Reinforced Hydrogel

Objective: the incidence of heart valve disease is increasing worldwide and the numberof heart valve replacements is expected to increase in the future. by mimicking the maintissue structures and properties of heart valve, tissue engineering offers new options forthe replacements. applying an appropriate scaffold in fabricating tissue-engineered heartvalves (tehvs) is of importance since it affects the secretion of the main extracellular matrix(ecm) components, collagen 1 and elastin, which are crucial in providing the propermechanical properties of tehvs.materials and methods: using real-time polymerase chain reaction (pcr) in this experimentalstudy, the relative expression levels of collagen 1 and elastin were obtainedfor three samples of each examined sheep mitral valvular interstitial cells (mvics)-seededonto electrospun poly (glycerol sebacate) (pgs)-poly (?-caprolactone) (pcl) microfibrous,gelatin and hyaluronic acid based hydrogel-only and composite (pgs-pcl/hydrogel)scaffolds. this composite has been shown to create a synthetic three-dimensional(3d) microenvironment with appropriate mechanical and biological properties for mvics.results: cell viability and metabolic activity were similar among all scaffold types. ourresults showed that the level of relative expression of collagen 1 and elastin geneswas higher in the encapsulated composite scaffolds compared to pgs-pcl-only and hydrogel-only scaffolds with the difference being statistically significant (p < 0.05).conclusion: the encapsulated composite scaffolds are more conducive to ecm secretionover the pgs-pcl-only and hydrogel-only scaffolds. this composite scaffoldcan serve as a model scaffold for heart valve tissue engineering.