Heart Valve Transplants

Human heart valves are anatomically perfectly adapted to their task. Therefore, heart valve transplants, so-called „homografts“, usually show very good long-term results.
Disadvantageous is that these grafts could be repelled by the recipient’s immune system. This leads to a loss of function of the graft and will eventually require another heart valve surgery.

In contrast, cell-free heart valves are not rejected by the recipient.
Cell-free human heart valves consist of tissue donations from which the cells of the donors are removed. Read more

The cell-free matrix can be used as a heart valve replacement and is spontaneously repopulated

after implantation by cells of the recipient.

Cell-free Heart Valve Transplants

During „decellularization“, all cells of the donor are being removed from the heart valve. Only the cell-free connective tissue remains. The now cell-free heart valve retains its original form and full functionality.

The processing at corlife takes place in clean rooms, is closely monitored and takes about 7 weeks. Before release, each implant is examined for sterility and freedom of cells. To preserve its native structure, cell-free tissues are not frozen at any point of processing.

3 Step Safety Concept

Since no donor cells are transferred, there is no strong rejection reaction by the receiver. Thus
far, clinical experiences show very good results in children and (young) adults. The functionality
of the valve is retained and there are no signs of rejection, e.g. by calcification.
After implantation the cell-free heart valve is repopulated by the recipient’s cells. This is a prerequisite for regeneration and longevity of the graft.
The cell-free human heart valves from corlife have been approved by the competent authorities for transplantation into humans and are an alternative to conventional transplants and prosthetic heart valves. In order to choose the right prosthesis for yourself, please consult with your doctor. Currently, corlife offers two different cell-free heart valve types.