Recent Advances in Natural Materials for Corneal Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Given the incidence of corneal dysfunctions and diseases worldwide and the limited availability of healthy, human donors, investigators are working to generate engineered cellular and acellular therapeutic approaches as alternatives to corneal transplants from human cadavers. These engineered strategies aim to address existing complications with human corneal transplants, including graft rejection, infection, and complications resulting from surgical methodologies. The main goals of these research endeavors are to (1) determine ideal mechanical properties, (2) devise methodologies to improve the efficacy of engineered corneal grafts and cell-based therapies, and (3) optimize transplantation of engineered tissue structures in the eye. Thus, recent innovations have sought to address these challenges through both in vitro and in vivo studies. This review covers recent work aimed at evaluating engineered materials, potential therapeutic cells, and the resulting cell-material interactions that lead to optimal corneal graft properties. Furthermore, we discuss promising strategies in corneal tissue engineering techniques and in vivo studies in animal models.

Emerging tissue engineering strategies for the corneal regeneration

“…The materials for tissue printing include melt-cure polymers, natural and synthetic derived hydrogels (Bin Jameson et al, 2021;Khosravimelal et al, 2021;Tamay et al, 2019).…”

Intraoperative Creation of Tissue-Engineered Grafts with Minimally Manipulated Cells: New Concept of Bone Tissue Engineering In Situ

“…The type of implantable materials is a key factor in maintaining the shape and mechanical properties of the bone graft after implantation [ 41 ]. All materials for bone tissue engineering are mainly divided into non-resorbable (e.g., ceramic and polymeric grafts) and bioresorbable materials [ 42 , 43 , 44 ]. Various osteoinductive materials, such as beta-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) [ 45 ], hydroxyapatite [ 46 ], and xenografts [ 47 ] are commonly used as scaffolds in preclinical studies and clinical cases due to their commercial availability.…”

Recent Approaches of Collagen Biomatrix Modification as a Corneal Biomatrix and its Cellular Interaction

“…The only recognized treatment strategy for corneal blindness or vision loss is through corneal transplant but is limited due to the corneal shortage [20,21]. Another alternative solution was by tissue engineering approach which replaces the damaged cornea with a biomaterial-based biomatrix combined with cells to replicate the corneal tissue [22][23][24][25]. Many corneal biomatrices have been developed to replace all or only a part of the cornea depending on the patient's requirement [26].…”