Assessment of glutaraldehyde crosslinking efficiency with an amine-specific fluorescent probe

Background. Crosslinking of heart valves with glutaraldehyde involves the binding of amine groups. We have developed a technique that provides an inverse measure of the degree of tissue fixation by quantifying the amount of unbound amines. Methods. Whole aortic valves were exposed to 0.5% glutaraldehyde solution for 0, 1, 15, and 60 minutes, 6 hours, and 1 and 7 days. Frozen sections were exposed to carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester, a fluorescent amine-reactive probe. Images were acquired from each section and processed to separate pixels representing tissue from those representing background. An average fluorescent intensity for each image was calculated and related to the number of unbound amines by comparing with standards. Results. The amount of uncrosslinked amines was observed to decrease exponentially with fixation time and achieved a plateau at 1 day of fixation. A significant difference in the amount of unbound amines also exists between valve leaflets fixed while connected to the root and those excised from the root before fixation. Conclusions. This amine measurement technique, being sensitive to spatially varying differences in chemical fixation, should be useful in evaluating the efficacy of new fixation protocols.