The corneal endothelium is the posterior monolayer of cells that are responsible for maintaining overall transparency of the avascular corneal tissue via pump function. These cells are non-regenerative in vivo and therefore, approximately 40% of corneal transplants undertaken worldwide are a result of damage or dysfunction of endothelial cells. The number of available corneal donor tissues is limited worldwide, hence, cultivation of human corneal endothelial cells (hCECs) in vitro has been attempted in order to produce tissue engineered corneal endothelial grafts. Researchers have attempted to recreate the current gold standard treatment of replacing the endothelial layer with accompanying Descemet’s membrane or a small portion of stroma as support with tissue engineering strategies using various substrates of both biologically derived and synthetic origin. Here we review the potential biomaterials that are currently in development to support the transplantation of a cultured monolayer of hCECs.
Corneal endothelial cells (CECs) facilitate the function of maintaining the transparency of the cornea. Damage or dysfunction of CECs can lead to blindness, and the primary treatment is corneal transplantation. However, the shortage of cornea donors is a significant problem worldwide. Thus, cultured CEC therapy has been proposed and found to be a promising approach to overcome the lack of tissue supply. Unfortunately, CECs in humans rarely proliferate in vivo and, therefore, can be extremely challenging to culture in vitro. Several promising cell isolation and culture techniques have been proposed. Multiple factors affecting the success of cell expansion including donor characteristics, preservation and isolation methods, plating density, media preparation, trans-differentiation and biomarkers have been evaluated. However, there is no consensus on standard technique for CEC culture. This review aimed to determine the challenges and investigate potential options that would facilitate the standardization of CEC culture for research and therapeutic application.
For over a decade, endothelial keratoplasty (EK) has been popularized as a standard of care for treating endothelial dysfunction. New techniques and devices have been introduced and implemented to prepare, load, transport and transplant the grafts for EK. The advantages are not only limited to the surgical theatre but also widely spread across the eye banking field. Investigation of advanced materials and designs have been rapidly growing with continuous evolution in the field of eye banking and corneal transplantation. Innovative techniques and modern devices have been evaluated to reduce the endothelial cell loss and increase the precision of the transplant in order to benefit both surgeons and patients. In addition, due to limited availability of healthy cadaveric donor corneas required for such transplants, it becomes extremely important to reduce any potential wastage and optimize the use of every donor cornea. As a result, the use of pre-cut and pre-loaded grafts supplied by the eye banks in calibrated devices have been gaining momentum. Innovation in the field of bioengineering for the development of new devices that facilitate excellent clinical outcomes along with reduction in learning curve has shown promising results. The review thus aims to summarize and compare the popular devices that have been used for delivering EK grafts in recent times.
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