Anticalcification treatment of pericardial prostheses.

The aim of the present study was to develop a chemical treatment to eliminate highly antigenic substances, to standardize the glutaraldehyde fixation procedure, to determine the dominant factors contributing to the calcification process and to understand the role of macromolecules like chitosan in the prevention of calcification of bioprosthetic heart valves. Bovine pericardium treated with 5% sodium chloride-trypsin-glutaraldehyde (GA)-chitosan did not calcify at 12 wk in the rat (calcium, 1.1 +/- 0.27 mg/g; von Kossa, 0). Slow release of residual GA from the bioprosthesis and free aldehyde groups on that are still considered the dominant factors for enhancing calcification of GA-treated bioprostheses.