Regulatory Compliant Tissue-Engineered Human Corneal Endothelial Grafts Restore Corneal Function of Rabbits with Bullous Keratopathy.

ABSTRACT: Corneal transplantation is the only treatment available to restore vision for individuals with blindness due to corneal endothelial dysfunction. However, severe shortage of available donor corneas remains a global challenge. Functional regulatory compliant tissue-engineered corneal endothelial graft substitute can alleviate this reliance on cadaveric corneal graft material. Here, isolated primary human corneal endothelial cells (CEnCs) propagated using a dual media approach refined towards regulatory compliance showed expression of markers indicative of the human corneal endothelium, and can be tissue-engineered onto thin corneal stromal carriers. Both cellular function and clinical adaptability was demonstrated in a pre-clinical rabbit model of bullous keratopathy using a tissue-engineered endothelial keratoplasty (TE-EK) approach, adapted from routine endothelial keratoplasty procedure for corneal transplantation in human patients. Cornea thickness of rabbits receiving TE-EK graft gradually reduced over the first two weeks, and completely recovered to a thickness of approximately 400?µm by the third week of transplantation, whereas corneas of control rabbits remained significantly thicker over 1,000?µm (p?

SUBMITTER: Peh GSL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5658403 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature