Preservation of morphological integrity of the human umbilical cord vein: A study of two storage modes

The human umbilical cord vein processed by various tanning techniques is currently used as a prosthetic vascular conduit in ischemic peripheral vascular disease. Human umbilical cords obtained at delivery were irrigated with physiologic fluids to remove residual blood from the umbilical vein preserved by either conventional refrigeration or freezing, and examined at various times by histologic and electron microscopic techniques, as well as physicochemical properties when converted to a tanned conduit. Immediate fixation of control cords allowed characterization of their entire structure and provided baseline data to compare the refrigerated and frozen specimens. Human umbilical cords conventionally refrigerated for up to three days or frozen up for up to one week, without the use of any special reagents, showed sufficient retention of architectural features of the umbilical veins to qualify them for use in manufacturing prosthetic arterial grafts with a high degree of morphologic integrity, while meeting physicochemical criteria which have been shown to correlate with excellent clinical performance of the implanted conduits. Human umbilical cord vein, subintimal connective tissue, vascular basement membrane, internal elastic lamina, smooth muscle cells, storage mode, vascular grafts.