Residual heteroantigenicity of glutaraldehyde-treated porcine cardiac valves.

Treatment of porcine valves in vitro with glutaraldehyde significantly decreases their heteroantigenicity, as judged by immune reaction in mice heterografted with glutaraldehyde-treated valves or injected intraperitoneally with valvular homogenates. Conditioned porcine valves, grafted in a cutaneous pouch onto the backs of two different inbred strains (C57Bl and DBA) behave like inert material and show minimal cellular infiltration at histological examination. Little or no antibody response, demonstrate with the cytotoxicity test is elicited by glutaraldehyde-treated valvular tissue, either grafted or injected intraperitoneally as homogenate. These data supply a biological basis for the surgical practice of heterotransplants of glutaraldehyde-treated valves as an alternative to the artificial prostheses.