Poly (ε-caprolactone) nanofibrous ring surrounding a polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel for the development of a biocompatible two-part artificial cornea

Abstract

The study aimed to fabricate and characterize a 2-part artificial cornea as a substitute for penetrating keratoplasty in patients with corneal blindness. The peripheral part of the artificial cornea consisted of plasma-treated electrospun poly (ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL) nanofibers, which were attached to a hydrogel disc of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a central optical part. The physical properties of the prepared artificial cornea, including morphology, mechanical properties, light transmittance, and contact angle, were assessed. Cell attachment and proliferation studies were performed on rabbit limbal stem cells. The SEM image of the polymeric system showed that the peripheral part formed a highly porous scaffold that could facilitate tissue biointegration. Assessment of the mechanical properties of the peripheral nanofibrous part and the hydrogel optical part showed suitable elasticity. Young’s modulus values of the electrospun PCL skirt and PVA hydrogel core were 7.5 and 5.3 MPa, respectively, which is in line with the elasticity range of natural human cornea (0.3–7 MPa). The light transmittance of the central part was >85% when measured in the 400–800 nm wavelength range. The plasma-treated PCL nanofibrous scaffold promoted limbal stem cell adhesion and proliferation within 10 days. These results confirmed that the polymeric artificial cornea showed suitable physical properties and good biocompatibility and epithelialization ability.

Composite core-and-skirt collagen hydrogels with differential degradation for corneal therapeutic applications

“…Another important difference from prior composite keratoprosthesis designs is that biologically inert materials require surface modifications or coating with collagen or other growth factors to support cell adhesion, and special steps to maintain permeability for nutrient diffusion for cell survival [7,[9][10][11][12]. Construction of inert prostheses with regenerative capacity therefore includes many technically demanding steps [9,11,12].…”

3D Printing and Performance Study of Porous Artificial Bone Based on HA-ZrO2-PVA Composites

“…Polyvinyl alcohol is a cell culture fluid used in recent scientific experiments, including a new finding that validates its good biocompatibility. In addition, its aqueous gels are widely used in ophthalmology, wound dressings, and artificial joints [ 28 , 29 , 30 ], and, in this work, polyvinyl alcohol type PVA1788 was chosen as the binder.…”

Hydrogels for ocular drug delivery and tissue engineering

“…Further, unlike amniotic membrane transplantation modality, the application of hydrogels for tissue engineering demand no requirement for an extensive serological screening for histo-compaitibility. 31 So far, various polymers have been used to devise different types of hydrogel applied for the tissue engineering of OS, including bilayer composite hydrogel composed of corneal stroma crosslinked to poly(ethylene oxide), 32 alginate and agarose based systems, 33 modified calcium alginate, 34 gelatin based constructs, 35 PEG-stabilized collagen-chitosan crosslinked systems, 36 polyvinyl alcohol modified poly (epsilon-caprolactone) nanofibrous system, 37 genipin crosslinked chitosan, 38 chitosan-PEG systems, 39 collagen and chondroitin sulfate based hydrogel, 40 , 41 fibrin, 42 , 43 silk fibroin, 31 keratin, polymethacrylate, and cellulose hydrogel. 31 , 44 Taken all, it appears that a biocompatible hydrogel can be used as an artificial cornea in the case of LSCD, in which reconstruction of the OS with autologous stem cells embedded onto the hydrogel may provide great clinical impacts.…”