Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.
Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.
Exp Eye Res. 2018 Aug;173:188-193. doi: 10.1016/j.exer.2018.05.010. Epub 2018 May 30.
Corneal transplantation constitutes one of the leading treatments for severe cases of loss of corneal function. Due to its limitations, a concerted effort has been made by tissue engineers to produce functional, synthetic corneal prostheses as an alternative recourse. However, successful translation of these therapies into the clinic has not yet been accomplished. 3D bioprinting is an emerging technology that can be harnessed for the fabrication of biological tissue for clinical applications. We applied this to the area of corneal tissue engineering in order to fabricate corneal structures that resembled the structure of the native human corneal stroma using an existing 3D digital human corneal model and a suitable support structure. These were 3D bioprinted from an in-house collagen-based bio-ink containing encapsulated corneal keratocytes. Keratocytes exhibited high cell viability both at day 1 post-printing (>90%) and at day 7 (83%). We established 3D bio-printing to be a feasible method by which artificial corneal structures can be engineered.
角膜移植是治疗严重角膜功能丧失的主要方法之一。由于其局限性，组织工程师一直在努力生产功能性、合成的角膜假体作为替代方法。然而，这些疗法尚未成功转化为临床应用。3D 生物打印是一种新兴技术，可以用于制造用于临床应用的生物组织。我们将其应用于角膜组织工程领域，以便使用现有的 3D 数字人角膜模型和合适的支撑结构，制造类似于天然人角膜基质结构的角膜结构。这些结构是用人眼角膜基质细胞包封在含有胶原蛋白的内部生物墨水中 3D 打印而成的。在打印后第 1 天（>90%）和第 7 天（83%），角膜基质细胞表现出高细胞活力。我们证实了 3D 生物打印是一种可行的方法，可以用来构建人工角膜结构。
