Background: Glutaraldehyde fixation (G-F) decreases but likely does not eliminate the antigenicity of bioprosthetic heart valves. Rejection (with secondary dystrophic calcification) may be why G-F xenograft valves fail, especially in young patients, who are more immunocompetent than the elderly. Therefore, we sought to determine whether rejection of G-F xenograft occurs and to correlate this with graft calcification.
Methods and results: Ascending aortas/valves (from rats [syngeneic] or guinea pigs [xenogeneic]) were transplanted (fresh or after 48 hour of G-F) into the infrarenal aortas of young rat recipients for 20 days. A xenogeneic group was also treated with steroids until graft harvest. The valves and media/adventitia were scored blindly for inflammation (0 to 4). Percent graft infiltration by T cells/macrophages was determined (immunohistochemistry), and rat IgG ELISAs were performed. There was >3 times more valve inflammation, >10 times more valve T-cell/macrophage infiltrate, and >3 times antibody rise in the G-F xenogeneic groups compared with the fresh syngeneic or the G-F syngeneic groups (P<0.05). There was >2 times more adventitial inflammation and T-cell/macrophage infiltrate in the xenogeneic groups (P<0.05). Steroid treatment decreased inflammation and antibody rise in the xenogeneic groups (P<0.05). Correlation analysis revealed media/adventitia inflammation (P=0.02) and percent macrophage (P=0.01) infiltration to be predictors of calcification.
Conclusions: G-F xenografts have cellular/humoral rejection and calcify secondarily.