The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Vol 19, 158-169, Copyright © 1975 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
The fate of autologous fascia lata grafts in dogs
B Bharadwaj, E Kurylo and WW Kay
The fate of tricuspid fascia lata valves and intracardiac grafts was
studied morphologically, histologically, and biochemically in dogs. Severe
degenerative changes occurring by 21 days were largely correlated with
graft thickening due to gross endothelialization. A primary event in graft
alteration was an initial loss of the indigenous fibroblast population as
detected both microscopically and by autoradiography after pulse labeling
with 14C-Nethylmaleimide. Using different isotopic labeling procedures,
both the in vivo and in vitro graft degradation patterns demonstrated that
a second early eft degradation was correlated in vivo with
endothelialization and collagenase secretion by invasive cells.