Disruptive Technology Laboratory, Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Schepens Eye Research Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, United States.
Solid Tumor Research Center, Research Institute for Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, 57147, Urmia, Iran.
ACS Appl Bio Mater. 2021 Oct 18;4(10):7682-7691. doi: 10.1021/acsabm.1c00905. Epub 2021 Sep 21.
Corneal transplantation is currently the primary treatment for corneal blindness. However, severe global scarcity of donor corneas is driving the scientific community to find novel solutions. One potential solution is to replace the damaged tissue with a biocompatible artificial cornea. Here, gelatin glycidyl methacrylate (GM) and -vinylpyrrolidone (VP) were cocrosslinked to afford a hybrid bicomponent copolymeric hydrogel with excellent mechanical, structural, and biological properties. Our studies showed that the GM/VP ratio can be adjusted to generate a construct with high tensile modulus and strength of 1.6 and 1.0 MPa, respectively, compared to 14 and 7.5 MPa for human cornea. The construct can tolerate up to 22.4 kPa pressure before retention sutures can tear through it. Due to the presence of a synthetic component, it has a significantly higher stability against collagenase induced degradation, yet it is biocompatible and promotes cellular adhesion, proliferation, and migration under in vitro settings.
角膜移植术目前是治疗角膜盲的主要方法。然而，全球严重缺乏供体角膜，这促使科学界寻找新的解决方案。一种潜在的解决方案是用生物相容性的人工角膜替代受损组织。在这里，明胶甲基丙烯酸缩水甘油酯（GM）和乙烯基吡咯烷酮（VP）共聚交联，得到具有优异机械、结构和生物学性能的混合双组分共聚水凝胶。我们的研究表明，GM/VP 比例可以调整，生成的构建体具有较高的拉伸模量和强度，分别为 1.6 和 1.0 MPa，而人角膜的相应值为 14 和 7.5 MPa。该构建体可以承受高达 22.4 kPa 的压力，直到缝线固定物断裂。由于存在合成成分，它对胶原酶诱导的降解具有更高的稳定性，但它是生物相容的，并在体外环境中促进细胞黏附、增殖和迁移。
