Background: The assessing of heart valve viability is critical for the preparing of viable and implantable biological value. Non-viable valves should be cross-linked with various agents whereas viable tissues are suitable for cryoprotection. Cell viability assessment should be rapid, simple, easy and low cost.
Material/Methods: A simple method, simultaneous fluorescent staining of both viable and damaged valve cells was described. The material was consisted of 2 groups: a) with ischemic time below 3 hours (5 swine valves), and b) with ischemic time over 3 hours (5 swine valves). The supravital staining of leaflet fragments was conducted with single solution of fluorescein diacetate (living cells staining) and propodium iodide (damaged cells staining).
Results: The simultaneous staining predominantly showed green fluorescence typical for living cells and few red damaged cells in the short ischemic time group, whereas the second group showed the predominance of the red stained damaged cells.
Conclusions: The presented one-step supravital staining method is rapid and simple it allows differentiation of the viability of the valve cells, so it may be of value for the routine evaluation of cadaveric valve homografts

Keywords: heart valve homograft, Cell Viability, fluoresceine diacetate, propidium iodide