Maryada Sharma, Subhpreet Kaur, Nimisha A Mavlankar, Alokananda Chanda, Parul Chawla Gupta, Uma Nahar Saikia, Jagat Ram, Asish Pal, Sanjay Mandal, Purnananda Guptasarma, Manni Luthra-Guptasarma
BACKGROUND: Corneal disease is a major cause of blindness. Transplantation of cadaver-derived corneas (keratoplasty) is still the current therapy of choice; however, the global shortage of donor corneas continues to drive a search for alternatives. To this end, biosynthetic corneal substitutes have recently begun to gain importance. Here, we present a novel method for the generation of a cornea-like tissue (CLT), using corneo-scleral rims discarded after keratoplasty. METHODS AND RESULTS: Type I collagen was polymerized within the corneo-scleral rim, which functioned as a 'host' mould, directing the 'guest' collagen to polymerize into disc-shaped cornea-like material (CLM), displaying the shape, curvature, thickness, and transparency of normal cornea...
March 6, 2024: Molecular Biology Reports