The cornea is the dome-shaped and transparent outermost part of the eye that serves a critical dual role in both focusing light onto and protecting intraocular neurosensory structures. An injured or diseased cornea can quickly lead to scarring, thinning, and blindness. Patients with corneal blindness are currently treated with corneal transplantation from cadaveric donors. However, due to the shortage of donor tissue, only less than 2% worldwide can be treated by corneal transplantation. Therefore, tissue engineering and biomaterials development to create an alternate supply of tissue to cadaveric donor corneas could meet a major global public health need. The ideal biomaterials for cornea replacement should be biocompatible, transparent, mechanically stable, promoting corneal epithelial cells growth and stromal regeneration, and degradable in a way that promotes tissue regeneration and bio-integration. In this abstract, we developed collagen and hyaluronic acid-based co-polymer which can form a transparent hydrogel in the wound of the cornea in situ. Collagen is the major component of corneal stroma and is cell adhesive. Hyaluronic acid is known to promote corneal epithelial wound healing and has been used in eye drops and intraocular surgery. We used a bio-orthogonal strain-promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction to crosslink collagen and hyaluronic acid to each other. The collagen is modified with dibenzocyclooctyne (DBCO) groups and the hyaluronic acid is modified with azide groups. With this bio-orthogonal crosslinking strategy, the co-polymeric hydrogel can form in situ at the corneal wound site beneath a bandage contact lens without affecting or damaging surrounding epithelial and stromal tissue. This in situ formed hydrogel also maintained the curvature of the wounded cornea for over 4 days ex vivo. Future studies will focus on the effect of gel compositions and modifications on its mechanical properties, capacity for corneal epithelial cell adhesion, and therapeutic potential for vision restoration in animal models.

In situ forming bio-orthogonal collagen-hyaluronate co-polymeric hydrogel for sutureless repair of corneal injuries

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.