Vitrification for semilunar valve preservation: Progress to date toward optimizing partial heart transplantation

Congenital heart diseases, including semilunar valve (SV) abnormalities, remain a leading cause of mortality in the pediatric population. SV defects present a particular challenge in children because currently available prosthetic valves lack growth potential and often require repeated reinterventions as the patient matures. Partial heart transplantation (PHT) has recently emerged as a novel strategy to overcome this limitation, whereby viable donor SVs, isolated from hearts unsuitable for orthotopic heart transplantation, are implanted with the capacity to grow with the recipient. Given the relative structural simplicity of the SV tissue, multiple preservation strategies may be feasible. Among these, vitrification has demonstrated particular promise, offering the potential for long-term storage while preserving structural integrity, cellular viability, and reducing immunogenicity. This review summarizes the progress to date in applying vitrification to SV preservation and discusses the future applications in PHT.