Tissue-engineered cornea constructed with compressed collagen and laser-perforated electrospun mat

Abstract

While Plastic Compressed (PC) collagen technique is often used to fabricate bioengineered constructs, PC collagen gels are too weak to be sutured or conveniently handled for clinical applications. To overcome this limitation, electrospun poly (lactic-co-glycolide) (PLGA) mats, which have excellent biocompatibility and mechanical properties, were combined with PC collagen to fabricate sandwich-like hybrid constructs. By laser-perforating holes with different sizes and spacings in the electrospun mats to regulate the mechanical properties and light transmittance of the hybrid constructs, we produced hybrid constructs with properties very suitable to apply in corneal tissue engineering. The maximum tensile stress of the optimal hybrid construct was 3.42 ± 0.22 MPa. The light transmittance of the hybrid construct after perforation was approximately 15-fold higher than before, and light transmittance increased gradually with increasing time. After immersing into PBS for 7 days, the transmittance of the optimal construct changed from 63 ± 2.17% to 72 ± 1.8% under 500 nm wavelength. The live/dead staining, cell proliferation assay and immunohistochemistry study of human corneal epithelial cells (HCECs) and human keratocytes (HKs) cultured on the optimal hybrid construct both demonstrated that the cells adhered, proliferated, and maintained their phenotype well on the material. In addition, after culturing for 2 weeks, the HCECs could form stratified layers. Thus, our designed construct is suitable for the construction of engineered corneal tissue.

Fiber reinforced GelMA hydrogel to induce the regeneration of corneal stroma

“…he cornea locates at the outermost surface of the eye, and it plays an essential role in the visual system; it supplies twothirds' of optical power, protects the intraocular structures and tissues, and refracts light onto the retina 1 . Injuries, bacterial and viral infections, and congenital and degenerative conditions may damage the function of the cornea, making corneal damage the second leading cause of blindness.…”

“…Various bioengineering approaches have been attempted to fabricate corneal equivalence based on natural (e.g., collagen 1,4,5 , gelatin 6 , chitosan 7 , silk 8 , etc) or synthetic (e.g., poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) 9 , poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) 10 , poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) 1,11 , poly-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (PHEMA) 12 , etc) materials or the combination of natural and synthetic materials 1,4,13 by using the techniques of casting 14 , hydrogel 15 , 3D printing 16 , electrospinning 17,18 , and the combination of two or more of these processes 17 . Although these therapies and constructs have demonstrated acceptable mechanical properties and optical transmittance and can support corneal cells adhesion, migration, proliferation, and differentiation well, they fail to mimic the natural microenvironment of the native complex corneal tissue, and the most complicated part among the corneal tissue is the stroma.…”

Biomaterials in ophthalmology: human cornea bioengineering

“…The combination of natural and synthetic polymers induced a better integrity of the resulted hybrid biomaterial within the human host, while the mechanical and physical properties were maintained for a long-time use. Given the good adhesion and proliferation of corneal cells in the presence of hybrid constructs based on PLGA and collagen, the results of this study strongly encouraged the use of such artificial architectures for corneal tissue engineering [27].…”

Bio‐Orthogonally Crosslinked, In Situ Forming Corneal Stromal Tissue Substitute

“…[9] It is well known that collagen’s molecular structure a crucial role in cell adhesion, migration, and differentiation. [10] In this study, bovine type-I collagen was employed as matrix due to its low immunogenicity comparing to other collagen types.…”