By Megan Rayl
Littleton, Colo., junior
For the past decade, cardiovascular disease has been the top killer of individuals in the United States, according to the Center for Disease Control. This means it is almost inevitable that you have known someone who has been impacted or even died of cardiovascular disease.
What would you think if someone told you that beef byproducts could actually help improve the health of individuals with cardiovascular disease?
Cardiovascular disease is a result of poor health decisions and is worsened by certain genetics. A heart that has been affected by cardiovascular disease has physical damage to the tissues, which eventually result in the inability of the heart to properly function.
Individuals who are diagnosed with cardiovascular disease may be prescribed medications, but these only alleviate the symptoms. The only way to improve the condition of the heart is to attack the problem right at the source, repairing the damaged tissues. While heart transplants are available, they are expensive, risky, and difficult to obtain.
“As of April 17, 2018, over 4,000 people across the U.S are on the waiting list for donor hearts,” said Mark Drazner, M.D. In most cases, transplants are not an option, rather repairing the heart is the best bet.
Synthetic materials are available to repair damaged tissues, but there are some potential issues with this solution. In studies done by cardiologist Dr. Joseph Wu, the biocompatibility potential of synthetic materials is drastically low. This means that these synthetic materials can become toxic as they break down over time, can cause blood clotting, and can negatively affect the oxygen levels in the blood.
The most recently discovered solution, coming out of the Stanford Cardiology Research lab, involves using bovine tissues in order to repair the hearts of individuals diagnosed with cardiovascular disease. While synthetic materials may last longer that bovine tissues, the potential for non-biocompatibility makes bovine tissues the best choice for many individuals.
Many different bovine tissues can be used to repair cardiovascular tissues. Of the more popular materials used for reparation is the submucosa of the small intestine. With proper preparation, this tissue can be used for pericardial reconstruction and carotid repair. The submucosa of the small intestine offers high biocompatibility and low risk for calcification and encapsulation.
One of the promising attributes of bovine small intestine submucosa is its promotion of cell migration, which leads to local tissue regeneration. In other words, using bovine small intestine submucosa could potentially cause the hearts of individuals affected by cardiovascular disease to repair the damaged heart tissues over time.
Another bovine tissue that has been used to repair damage from cardiovascular disease is the pericardium, a fibrous sac that surrounds the heart in bovines as well as other mammals. The bovine pericardium has been used to repair the cardiac wall and valves, and fully seal up a pericardial closure. The fibers that make up the bovine pericardium are fairly elastic, which allows for conformity to any structure. The bovine pericardium also resists most infections because of its simple yet strong and consistent makeup as well as its high collagen levels.
The final most common bovine part used for treating cardiovascular disease is the heart valves. Generally, people use mechanical valves, but these have been shown to cause blood clotting, and individuals with mechanical valves generally have to be on blood thinners for the rest of their lives. This can cause other problems.
In order to avoid blood thinners, we turn to valves from the bovine heart. Bovine valves last 15 to 20 years and do not require patients to take any sort of blood thinners. For older patients, a bovine valve is recommended over a mechanical valve due to the amount of time that the valve will be used. Younger patients receiving bovine valves may have to have multiple replacements over their lifespans, but they will not have to be on blood thinners.
All these bovine tissues can be used to treat cardiovascular disease in humans, but how do we harvest them? Each year in the United States, about 32.2 million cattle are slaughtered for beef production. The small intestine submucosa, pericardia, and heart valves from these cattle can be used for treating individuals diagnosed with cardiovascular disease. Companies such as W&G Marketing Co. obtain these byproducts as well as others and process them in order to make them usable in humans and medicine.
In order for these products to be used in human medicine, they must be cleaned of all bovine blood and cells. They must then be cut down to the proper size and sanitized. These are simple processes, and it is possible for a pericardium to be in a cow one morning and in a patient recovering from surgery the next.
As medical professionals continue to do more research regarding the use of bovine tissues in order to treat humans, they will strive to find more tissues that can be used as well as find ways to make these tissues last longer. At the end of the day, the beef byproducts discussed could save the lives of your loved ones and potentially even you.
Megan Rayl, a 2017 Arapahoe High School graduate, is majoring in animal science at Fort Hays State University.
This essay on a topic in agriculture was researched and written by a student as part of a project in a senior animal science class at Fort Hays State University. The project director is Dr. Brittany Howell, associate professor of agriculture, bjhowell@fhsu.edu, 785-628-4015.