First animal implant done at KULeuven! Data will be used to develop innovative ETR models of tissue-engineered heart valves for the pulmonary artery.

The researcher and clinical team at KU Leuven have recently performed the first implant of Xeltis’ tissue-engineered heart valve on the animal model. As part of WP6, animal models will be used to generate the data source for the developing the growth & remodeling approach and ultimately predict the long-term response of implanted biodegradable heart valve by in-silico predictions.  The study will be completed by histological analyses and biomechanical characterization as done by SimInSitu partners.