{"id":54006,"date":"2026-04-23T03:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T03:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/54006\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T03:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T03:00:15","slug":"swiss-researchers-develop-3d-printed-and-polymer-coated-implant-prototypes-for-infant-mitral-valve-repair-voxelmatters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/54006\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss researchers develop 3D printed and polymer-coated implant prototypes for infant mitral valve repair | VoxelMatters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stay up to date with everything that is happening in the wonderful world of AM via our LinkedIn<\/a> community.<\/p>\n

Researchers at HEPIA, part of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO) in Geneva, have developed and characterized a series of leaflet and valve implant prototypes aimed at tackling the persistent clinical challenges of mitral valve repair in pediatric patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The study evaluated four distinct biomaterials<\/a> across structural, mechanical, and cell compatibility parameters.<\/p>\n

Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is the most common indication for pediatric mitral valve surgery<\/a>. Despite this, the mortality rate for affected children remains high \u2014 between 17.9% and 28.6% of patients do not survive seven years post-surgery. Complications include thromboembolism, immune rejection, calcification, and infection, and the fragile anatomy of neonatal patients and limited availability of appropriately sized prostheses further complicate surgical intervention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tissue-engineered heart valves (TEHVs) represent a bioengineering approach<\/a> intended to address these gaps by supporting patient-specific anatomical fit and also accommodating somatic growth.<\/p>\n

\"Swiss <\/a> Superficial views of the mitral valve implant prototype Valcard\u2019s surfaces.Four materials, two fabrication methods<\/p>\n

The research team, led by Adrien Roux at HEPIA, produced four 10-millimeter leaflet prototypes using two manufacturing approaches. Leaflets one through three were fabricated via conventional laser cutting and freeze-drying processes using ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), UHMWPE coated with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), and UHMWPE coated with PVA and type I collagen. A fourth leaflet and a complete mitral valve implant prototype \u2014 designated ValCard \u2014 were produced using volumetric 3D bioprinting with gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) hydrogel.<\/p>\n

The team seeded all prototypes with mesoangioblasts isolated from the human fetal aorta (AoMAB), a stem cell subpopulation that shares phenotypic characteristics with the valvular interstitial cells found in native heart tissue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cell viability exceeded 70% across all four materials, with the GelMA leaflet recording the highest result at 216.77 \u00b1 77.69%.<\/p>\n

UHMWPE-PVA-collagen identified as lead leaflet candidate<\/p>\n

Among the conventionally manufactured designs, the triple-layer UHMWPE-PVA-collagen leaflet posted the strongest overall profile. It recorded a degradation rate of 7.30 \u00b1 18.71% over 14 days, and the most stable cell proliferation pattern over time. The PVA and collagen coatings were found to modify the otherwise hydrophobic UHMWPE surface, introducing surface roughness that improved cell adhesion without compromising the material\u2019s mechanical properties.<\/p>\n

GelMA-based constructs, while exhibiting superior cell viability and compatibility with volumetric 3D bioprinting for patient-specific geometries, were excluded from degradation and traction testing due to the mechanical limitations of a 2-millimeter-thick construct.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The researchers noted that further work is required before clinical translation, including permeability and thrombogenicity testing, in vivo validation in animal models, and formal characterization of the ValCard prototype under ISO cardiovascular implant standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stay up to date with everything that is happening in the wonderful world of AM via our LinkedIn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[17164,41,17],"class_list":["post-54006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-future","tag-swiss","tag-switzerland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116451791564618761","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}