Bioprosthetic heart valves (BHVs) originating from pigs are extensively used for heart valve replacement in clinics. However, recipient immune responses associated with chronic calcification lead to structural valve deterioration (SVD) of BHVs. Two well-characterized epitopes on porcine BHVs have been implicated in SVD, including galactose-?1,3-galactose (?Gal) and N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc) whose synthesis are catalyzed by ?(1,3) galactosyltransferase (encoded by the GGTA1 gene) and CMP-Neu5Ac hydroxylase (encoded by the CMAH gene), respectively. It has been reported that BHV from ?Gal-knockout pigs are associated with a significantly reduced immune response by human serum. Moreover, valves from ?Gal/Neu5Gc-deficient pigs could further reduce human IgM/IgG binding when compared to BHV from ?Gal-knockout pigs. Recently, another swine xenoantigen, Sd(a), produced by ?-1,4-N-acetyl-galactosaminyl transferase 2 (?4GalNT2), has been identified. To explore whether tissue from GGTA1, CMAH, and ?4GalNT2 triple gene-knockout (TKO) pigs would further minimize human antibody binding to porcine pericardium, TKO pigs were successfully produced by CRISPR/Cas9 mediated gene targeting. Our results showed that the expression of ?Gal, Neu5G and Sd(a) on TKO pigs was negative, and that human IgG/IgM binding to pericardium was minimal. Moreover, the analysis of collagen composition and physical characteristics of porcine pericardium from the TKO pigs indicated that elimination of the three xenoantigens had no significant impact on the physical proprieties of porcine pericardium. Our results demonstrated that TKO pigs would be an ideal source of BHVs.

» Author: Runjie Zhang, Ying Wang, Lei Chen, Ronggen Wang, Chu Li, Xiaoxue Li, Bin Fang, Xueyang Ren, Miaomiao Ruan, Jiying Liu, Qiang Xiong, Lining Zhang, Yong Jin, Manling Zhang, Xiaorui Liu, Lin Li, Qiang Chen, Dengke Pan, Ro

» Reference: Acta Biomaterialia

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