Thickening of Ectatic Cornea through Regeneration Using Decellularized Corneal Matrix Injectable Hydrogel: A Strategic Advancement to Mitigate Corneal Ectasia

Abstract

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.

Smooth muscle matrix bioink promotes myogenic differentiation of encapsulated adipose‐derived stem cells

“…Moreover, the reported DNA value for the H/H protocol is between the two commercially available products Alloderm ™ (0.95 μg/mg) and Permacol ™ (0.063 μg/mg) 10 . The use of sodium chloride as a lone decellularizing agent has been shown to be effective without eliciting the immune response in an in vivo study as reported in literature 28 . The ECM components that help in gel formation via self‐assembly, responsible for lubrication and harbor various growth factors were retained in the decellularized tissue.…”

“…10 The use of sodium chloride as a lone decellularizing agent has been shown to be effective without eliciting the immune response in an in vivo study as reported in literature. 28 The ECM components that help in gel formation via self-assembly, responsible for lubrication and harbor various growth factors were retained in the decellularized tissue. Compared to dSMM prepared by S/T method, complete solubilization of lyophilized tissue in 0.1 M HCl was observed for dSMM by H/H method with no remnants of the tissue pieces, probably because of the salting-in effect.…”