Ectatic corneal diseases are a group of
eye disorders characterized
by progressive thinning and outward bulging of the cornea, resulting
in vision impairment. A few attempts have been made to use cornea-derived
extracellular matrix hydrogels for corneal tissue engineering; however,
no studies have investigated its application in corneal ectasia. In
this study, we have first developed an animal surgical model that
mimics a few specific phenotypes of ectatic cornea. Later, we investigated
the potential of decellularized cornea matrix hydrogels (dCMH) from
both human and bovine sources in increasing the thickness of the cornea
in the developed surgical model. Our data advocate that surgical stromal
depletion can be followed to establish ectatic models and can also
provide information on the biocompatibility of materials, its integration
with native stroma, degradation over time, and tissue remodeling.
We observed that dCMH from both sources could integrate with ectatic
thin corneal stroma and helps in regaining the thickness by regenerating
a reasonably functional and transparent stroma; however, no significant
difference was spotted between the dCMH made from human and bovine
corneal tissue sources. Hence, this study is a promising step toward
developing a non-invasive technique for the treatment of corneal ectasia
by using dCMH.
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