title: Construction of a human corneal stromal equivalent with non-transfected human corneal stromal cells and acellular porcine corneal stromata.
abstract: A tissue-engineered human corneal stroma (TE-HCS) has been developed as a promising equivalent to the native corneal stroma for replacement therapy. However, there is still a crucial need to improve the current approaches to render the TE-HCS equivalent more favorable for clinical applications. At the present study, we constructed a TE-HCS by incubating non-transfected human corneal stromal (HCS) cells in an acellular porcine corneal stromata (aPCS) scaffold in 20% fetal bovine serum supplemented DMEM/F12 (1:1) medium at 37 °C with 5% CO2in vitro. After 3 days of incubation, the constructed TE-HCS had a suitable tensile strength for transplantation, and a transparency that is comparable to native cornea. The TE-HCS had a normal histological structure which contained regularly aligned collagen fibers and differentiated HCS cells with positive expression of marker and functional proteins, mimicking a native HCS. After transplantation into rabbit models, the TE-HCS reconstructed normal corneal stroma in vivo and function well in maintaining corneal clarity and thickness, indicating that the completely biological TE-HCS could be used as a HCS equivalent. The constructed TE-HCS has promising potentials in regenerative medicine and treatment of diseases caused by corneal stromal disorders.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Corneal Tissue Engineering, College of Marine Life Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, Shandong Province, China.
authors.forename: Jin-Mei
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Diao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Corneal Tissue Engineering, College of Marine Life Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, Shandong Province, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Pang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Corneal Tissue Engineering, College of Marine Life Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, Shandong Province, China.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Corneal Tissue Engineering, College of Marine Life Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, Shandong Province, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Corneal Tissue Engineering, College of Marine Life Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, Shandong Province, China.
authors.forename: Miao-Miao
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Corneal Tissue Engineering, College of Marine Life Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, Shandong Province, China. Electronic address: tjfan@ouc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ting-Jun
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Fan
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003316:Corneal Diseases / Q000601:surgery*; D015715:Corneal Edema / Q000473:pathology; D003319:Corneal Stroma / Q000166:cytology*; D016039:Corneal Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D011817:Rabbits; D013552:Swine; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds
keywords: Acellular porcine corneal stromata; Construction; Human corneal stromal cells; Human corneal stromal equivalent; Tissue-engineered human corneal stroma