Liu Yongsong, Sun Hong, Guo Ping, Hu Min, Zhang Yuan, Tighe Sean, Chen Shuangling, Zhu Yingting
Department of Ophthalmology, Yan' An Hospital of Kunming City, Kunming, 650051, China.
Department of Ophthalmology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, China.
Int J Med Sci. 2017 Jun 30;14(8):705-710. doi: 10.7150/ijms.19018. eCollection 2017.
Corneal endothelial cells play a critical role in maintaining corneal transparency and dysfunction of these cells caused by aging, diseases (such as Fuch's dystrophy), injury or surgical trauma, which can lead to corneal edema and blindness. Due to their limited proliferative capacity , the only treatment method is via transplantation of a cadaver donor cornea. However, there is a severe global shortage of donor corneas. To circumvent such issues, tissue engineering of corneal tissue is a viable option thanks to the recent discoveries in this field. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in reprogramming adult human corneal endothelial cells into their progenitor status, the expansion methods and characteristics of human corneal endothelial progenitors, and their potential clinical applications as corneal endothelial cell grafts.
角膜内皮细胞在维持角膜透明度方面发挥着关键作用，而这些细胞因衰老、疾病（如富克斯角膜内皮营养不良）、损伤或手术创伤导致的功能障碍，可引发角膜水肿和失明。由于其增殖能力有限，唯一的治疗方法是通过移植尸体供体角膜。然而，全球范围内供体角膜严重短缺。为规避此类问题，鉴于该领域的最新发现，角膜组织工程是一个可行的选择。在本综述中，我们总结了将成人人类角膜内皮细胞重编程为其祖细胞状态的最新进展、人类角膜内皮祖细胞的扩增方法和特征，以及它们作为角膜内皮细胞移植物的潜在临床应用。
