title: Tissue engineering of the corneal endothelium: a review of carrier materials.
abstract: Functional impairment of the human corneal endothelium can lead to corneal blindness. In order to meet the high demand for transplants with an appropriate human corneal endothelial cell density as a prerequisite for corneal function, several tissue engineering techniques have been developed to generate transplantable endothelial cell sheets. These approaches range from the use of natural membranes, biological polymers and biosynthetic material compositions, to completely synthetic materials as matrices for corneal endothelial cell sheet generation. This review gives an overview about currently used materials for the generation of transplantable corneal endothelial cell sheets with a special focus on thermo-responsive polymer coatings.
authors: Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, Max Bergmann Center of Biomaterials, Institute of Biofunctional Polymer Materials, Hohe Straße 6, Dresden 01069, Germany. richard.funk@tu-dresden.de.
authors: Juliane
authors: J
authors: Teichmann
authors: Institute of Anatomy, Medical Faculty Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, Dresden 01307, Germany. monika.valtink@tu-dresden.de.
authors: Monika
authors: M
authors: Valtink
authors: Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, Max Bergmann Center of Biomaterials, Institute of Biofunctional Polymer Materials, Hohe Straße 6, Dresden 01069, Germany. nitschke@ipfdd.de.
authors: Mirko
authors: M
authors: Nitschke
authors: Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, Max Bergmann Center of Biomaterials, Institute of Biofunctional Polymer Materials, Hohe Straße 6, Dresden 01069, Germany. gramm@ipfdd.de.
authors: Stefan
authors: S
authors: Gramm
authors: Institute of Anatomy, Medical Faculty Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstraße 74, Dresden 01307, Germany. richard.funk@tu-dresden.de.
authors: Richard H W
authors: RH
authors: Funk
authors: CRTD/DFG-Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden-Cluster of Excellence, Fetscherstraße 105, Dresden 01307, Germany. k.engelmann@skc.de.
authors: Katrin
authors: K
authors: Engelmann
authors: Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, Max Bergmann Center of Biomaterials, Institute of Biofunctional Polymer Materials, Hohe Straße 6, Dresden 01069, Germany. werner@ipfdd.de.
authors: Carsten
authors: C
authors: Werner