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To address the issues with current cardiovascular implant technology a new start-up company operating as part of the Wyss Translational Center in Zurich Switzerland has developed the LifeMatrix platform a scalable tissue engineering technology that creates novel biomimetic cardiovascular implants with capacity for self-renewal remodeling and growth.
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The tissue engineering-based LifeMatrix platform shows huge potential to be a disruptive technology in the cardiovascular implant market. GlobalData estimates that the transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) market alone represents a global market value of $3.41bn in 2019 and projects a double-digit compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of this market value across the globe.
Ashley Young Medical Devices Analyst at GlobalData comments: “ “If LifeMatrix is able to demonstrate clinical advantages of its platform through rigorous human clinical trial testing the advantages of this technology will establish it as a competitive player in the TAVR and other cardiovascular markets in the future.
“In essence the LifeMatrix platform involves growing donor human cells from so-called ‘master cell banks’ onto biodegradabe polymer scaffolds outside of the body with specific stimulants so that they produce extracellular matrix (ECM). The human donor cells are then removed leaving behind an off-the-shelf and cell-free implant which can be implanted into every patient without eliciting an immune response.
“LifeMatrix biomimentic implants are dynamic having the capacity to grow and transform into living tissue after implantation and repopulation with the recipient’s cells. In addition the LifeMatrix process is scalable - since the same donor cells can be used to create thousands of individual biomimetic implants.”
So far LifeMatrix devices have undergone several stages of preclinical testing and successfully shown feasibility safety and efficacy for a number of different indications.
Young continued: “The first indication targeted for clinical trials in humans using these biomimetic devices was as a cavopulmonary shunt in pediatric patients with single ventricle anatomy. Animal testing using LifeMatrix devices as heart valve replacements has also proven to be successful. First proof-of-concept studies have furthermore confirmed the feasibility of LifeMatrix technology for TAVR. Going forward the company plans on considering additional cardiovascular indications.”
