Fabrication and characters of a corneal endothelial cells scaffold based on chitosan

Abstract

A novel chitosan-based membrane that made of hydroxyethyl chitosan, gelatin and chondroitin sulfate was used as a carrier of corneal endothelial cells. The characteristics of the blend membrane including transparency, equilibrium water content, ion and glucose permeability were determined. The results showed that the optical transparency of the membrane was as good as the natural human cornea. The water content of this scaffold was 81.32% which was remarkably close to the native cornea. The membrane had a good ion permeability and its glucose permeability was even higher than natural human cornea. The cultured rabbit corneal endothelial cells formed a monolayer on the membrane. The results demonstrated that the membrane was suitable for corneal endothelial cells to attach and grow on it. In addition, the membranes in vivo could be degraded steadily with less inflammation and showed a good histocompatibility. These results demonstrated that the hydroxyethyl chitosan-chondroitin sulfate-gelatin blend membrane can potentially be used as a carrier for corneal endothelial cell transplantation.

Crosslinked collagen–gelatin–hyaluronic acid biomimetic film for cornea tissue engineering applications

“…For these reasons, a tissue engineering approach involving natural biomaterials is promising in the process of cornea tissue repair and regeneration [4][5][6]. Recent reports on the cornea repair materials include a variety of sources, such as human amniotic membrane [7,8], collagen scaffolds [9], silk films [10,11], chitosan films [12], and so on.…”

Corneal Tissue Engineering: Recent Advances and Future Perspectives

“…60,[69][70][71][72][73][74] Decellularized aminiotic membrane was clinically evaluated in combination with human corneal endothelial cells in a lamellar keratoplasty model, where the removal of the endothelium and part of the Descemet's membrane was performed and able to function as a corneal endothelium equivalent. 73 …”

“…Primary human corneal endothelial cells Honda et al, 69 Watanabe et al, 70 Liang et al, 71 Fan et al, 73 Teichmann et al, 72 although lacking in adequate optical properties. 58 The combination of synthetic polymers together with natural-derived materials provides enhanced biological responses and more amenable optical properties.…”

Synthesis and characterization of a hydroxyethyl derivative of chitosan and evaluation of its biosafety

“…HE-chitosan derivatives have been employed as an implant for glaucoma filtering surgery , an effective potential drug candidate for the treatment of chronic renal disease (Yuan et al, 2011;He et al, 2012) and the oral deliverer of paclitaxel (Zhang et al, 2005). In addition, HE-chitosan derivatives have been employed as a composite hydrogel for corneal endothelium reconstruction in tissue engineering (Liang et al, 2011). However, the biosafety of HE-chitosan has not been evaluated appropriately, which is critical for its application.…”