Frontier Tissueline, Chennai, the research arm of Frontier Lifeline, is the only unit in Asia, to have its own tissue engineered conduits including bovine pericardium
Frontier Tissueline
Frontier Lifeline is a cardiac specialty hospital with 120-beds located in Chennai, with state-of-the-art equipment for the management of patients with different types of heart disease. It has a highly skilled and experienced team for the management of adult as well as paediatric patients, with acute coronary disease. This is supported by different departments which are unique for a heart specialty hospital, such as the evaluation of genetic defects in newborn, use of genetically engineered valves and conduits, genetically engineered organ substitutes and the latest in stem-cell therapy. It also has an electrophysiology department to correct all types of irregular and abnormal heart beats and it is now contemplating clinical use of stem-cell derived pacemakers.
Congenital Heart Defects
Frontier Lifeline is one of the few centers in India which focuses on the treatment of children with congenital heart defects. Its commitment to children extends to the poor and needy and it is also recognised by the Government of Madhya Pradesh and other North-Eastern states in India, for operating on poor children. Dr KM Cherian and his dedicated team’s expertise on treating heart problems, especially in children, has led to the development of several new and successful techniques and procedures. Children who require reconstruction of RVOT need homografts (grafts taken from donor humans) which are the golden standard. But it is difficult to procure homografts due to strict government regulations. This is because the Government permission given earlier was misused, prompting the Government to tighten the norms and procedures. This has resulted in a major disadvantage for the population in general.
Xenografts
To remedy the critical shortfall of homografts, Frontier Lifeline has developed tissue engineered xenografts (grafts taken from suitable animal parts), both porcine (from pigs) and bovine (from buffaloes) jugular valved conduits. Frontier Lifeline is the only unit in Asia, to have its own tissue engineered conduits including bovine pericardium (tissue covering the heart). These indigenously prepared products are particularly useful in the correction of complex cardiac diseases.
Xenografts at Frontier Tissueline
To demonstrate the complexity of the cases coming to Frontier Lifeline, here is an example: a 17-day-old baby girl was admitted with a very complex cardiac problem. The baby had Truncus Arteriosus with an Interrupted Aortic Arch- a common outflow from the heart with a large underlying hole in the partition between the left and right pumping chambers of the heart as well as a very serious associated problem in the form of disconnection of the major blood vessel (the tube that takes blood to the body).
She was operated at 19 days of age when the hole was closed with a patch directing the left pump into the aorta thus enabling the blood to flow to the body. The second outflow to the lungs was created using tissue engineered bovine jugular vein valved graft. The disconnected aortic arch was repaired establishing continuity using a porcine blood vessel valve. The baby demonstrated a remarkable recovery and is doing well.
Benefits
Xenografts are also useful for the ROSS I and II procedures, for patients with aortic valve and mitral valve disease. This procedure is prescribed particularly for children and young women of child-bearin
g age because it avoids the use of blood thinning agents and has better trouble-free, long-term results, especially in the younger age group.
Initiatives
Frontier Lifeline believes in sharing of knowledge for widespread benefit. On the educational front, it offers many courses such as the Physician Assistant course as well as technology oriented diploma courses in operation theatre technology, anaesthesia technology, clinical microbiology etc. BSc, MSc, M-tech and PhD courses in affiliation with IIT, BITS and Meenakshi University offers a complete range of accredited courses. Frontier Lifeline has also formalised an affiliation with Madras University for a PG Diploma in ‘Stem-cell Technology and Tissue Engineering’, for the first time in the country. It is also in the process of formalising the introduction of several medical and paramedical courses, in collaboration with reputed universities in the US, UK and Europe.
