Targeted Transplantation of Human Umbilical Cord Blood Endothelial Progenitor Cells with Immunomagnetic Nanoparticles to Repair Corneal Endothelium Defect

Abstract

Corneal endothelial dysfunction involves progressive corneal edema and loss of visual acuity, which result in the need for corneal transplantation. The global shortage of donor corneas limits the development of the surgery. Reconstruction of a bioengineered corneal endothelium might resolve this problem. Various scaffolds have been used, but poor biocompatibility and degradation limit their applications. In this study, a novel method of targeted cellular transplantation without permanent residence of cell carriers in the host was proposed. Human umbilical cord blood endothelial progenitor cells (UCB EPCs) were labeled with CD34 immunomagnetic nanoparticles. The efficiency of the magnet attraction was evaluated in vitro with a simple device simulating the anterior chamber. The UCB EPCs labeled with nanoparticles were transplanted into the anterior chamber of rabbits with magnet attraction. The results indicated that labeling the nanoparticles did not affect the proliferation of the UCB EPCs. The in vitro study indicated that the magnet could directionally attract UCB EPCs labeled with nanoparticles. The in vivo study indicated that the corneas in rabbits transplanted with UCB EPCs labeled with nanoparticles and magnet attraction became relatively transparent with little edema. These results showed that UCB EPCs labeled with CD34 immunomagnetic nanoparticles could be attracted directionally by a magnet and could repair corneal endothelial defects, providing a promising cell therapy for corneal endothelial dysfunction.

Skin-Derived Precursors as a Source of Progenitors for Corneal Endothelial Regeneration

“…Ju et al reported the differentiation of corneal endothelial like‐cell from rat neural crest cells in vitro . Other stem cell sources such as ES cells , iPS cells , umbilical cord blood cells , and umbilical cord blood endothelial cells also seem promising.…”

Use of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVEC) as a Model to Study Cardiovascular Disease: A Review

“…According to different authors, umbilical cords should be collected from full-term infants, ideally delivered by natural birth, from healthy mothers, after an uncomplicated pregnancy, and should be free of hepatitis or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection [42]. In some studies, the authors specify whether they used cords collected from natural births [51][52][53] or cesarean sections [29,[54][55][56][57]. Occasionally, cords from pregnancies of mothers with certain diseases or traits may be required, for example, HUVEC from infants with mothers who developed gestational diabetes have been used for genetic, epigenetic, and proteomic studies of the effects of T2D on EC [58,59].…”

Directed Differentiation of Human Corneal Endothelial Cells From Human Embryonic Stem Cells by Using Cell-Conditioned Culture Media

“…It has been reported that human umbilical cord blood mesenchymal stem cells, which have been cultured by conditioned medium (LEC-CM) of HLEC, can be induced to differentiate into CECs by simulating the development of the eye. 32 Meanwhile, mature CECs can also provide some inducing factors for undifferentiated CECs by autocrining some regulatory factors. 33,34 At this stage, we induced the differentiation of POMPs using a mixed-conditioned medium of both LEC-CM and HCEC-CM.…”