Abstract
Corneal endothelium is a single layer of specialized cells that lines the posterior surface of cornea and maintains corneal hydration and corneal transparency essential for vision. Currently, transplantation is the only therapeutic option for diseases affecting the corneal endothelium. Transplantation of corneal endothelium, called endothelial keratoplasty, is widely used for corneal endothelial diseases. However, corneal transplantation is limited by global donor shortage. Therefore, there is a need to overcome the deficiency of sufficient donor corneal tissue. New approaches are being explored to engineer corneal tissues such that sufficient amount of corneal endothelium becomes available to offset the present shortage of functional cornea. Although human corneal endothelial cells have limited proliferative capacity in vivo, several laboratories have been successful in in vitro expansion of human corneal endothelial cells. Here we provide a comprehensive analysis of different substrates employed for in vitro cultivation of human corneal endothelial cells. Advances and emerging challenges with ex vivo cultured corneal endothelial layer for the ultimate goal of therapeutic replacement of dysfunctional corneal endothelium in humans with functional corneal endothelium are also presented.
Highlights
IntroductionThe cornea is the transparent anterior part of the eye that transmits and focuses light onto the retina
The cornea is the transparent anterior part of the eye that transmits and focuses light onto the retina.From anterior to posterior (Figure 1), the cornea is composed of the corneal epithelium (50 μm thick), the Bowman’s membrane (12 μm), the stroma (480–500 μm), the Descemet’s membrane (8–10 μm), and the endothelium (5 μm) [1]
The present review focuses on emerging substrates for improved culturing of Human corneal endothelial cells (HCECs)
Summary
The cornea is the transparent anterior part of the eye that transmits and focuses light onto the retina. Further reduction of the central corneal endothelial density in adults is reported at the rate of 0.6% yearly with gradual change in cell shape and size [11]. With increasing advances in regenerative medicine, several research groups have investigated on expansion of corneal endothelial cells and transplantation of tissue engineered corneal endothelium in experimental animal models [21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36]. The present review focuses on emerging substrates for improved culturing of HCECs. To provide a background for the current use of substrates, cell sources for tissue engineering of corneal endothelium are described
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