DECELLULARIZATION OF COW AORTA VIA SUPERCRITICAL CO2

Abstract

Decellularized tissues have been extensively studied in recent years thanks to functioning as potential tissue scaffolds consisting of natural extracellular matrix components (ECM). The most critical issue to obtain a decellularized tissue is the removal of cells on the ECM without destroying the ECM components. Besides, while decellularizing a  tissue, keeping the ultra-structure of the 3D composition of native ECM and thus, saving mechanical behavior is essential. In this study, the decellularization of cow aorta with SFE and with a hybrid method combining TritonX-100 / SFE was compared. The aorta was treated by SFE for 1h, 4h, 6h, and a combined method (SFE/Triton X-100) was performed as 2 hours Triton-X-100/1-hour SFE treatment and, overnight Triton-X-100 /1h SFE treatment. The complex structure of the ECM after decellularization via SFE was obtained fairly similar to native ECM compared to TritonX-100 treated cow aortic tissue samples according to the SEM images and H&E staining results. At the same time, tissue samples treated with SFE demonstrated an equal decellularization yield in a shorter time than those decellularized with chemical methods. Besides, mechanical strength and protein integrity of decellularized ECM by SFE was determined similar to the native tissue