Abstract
Purpose :
Severe epithelial defect may cause ocular infection, irreversible scarification and vision lost if without proper treatment. However, the epithelial healing process is greatly hindered by the limited number of cells migrating to the injury. We explored a “living bandage” for rapid transplanting of plentiful epithelial cells. The living bandage consists of a scaffold-free human corneal epithelial (HCE-T) cell sheet and biocompatible hydrogel. Numerous cells can migrate from the living bandage to defect area after transplanting the living bandage, which improves epithelium recovery immensely.
Methods :
The planar corneal epithelium cell construct was fabricated by self-assembling high number of HCE-T cells at the interface between two immiscible liquids within hours. Then, the planar cell construct was transferred on the hydrogel to form a living bandage. To observe the migration process of epithelium off the planar structure, the living bandage was transplanted onto Corning™ Transwells (N=3). Meanwhile, recovery of epithelium after transplantation with living bandage was investigated on de-epithelialized porcine cornea ex-vivo models from day 1 to 7 (N=5).
Results :
Based on previous results, the fabricated cell constructs preserved viability and proliferative ability. To fit the size of human cornea, the diameter of planar construct was enlarged to 7 mm by mounting cell density to 60, 000 cell/mm2. HCE-T migrated off the living bandage abruptly in vitro, compared to corneal bandage with a well grown cell layer. All HCE-T cells detached from the hydrogel and migrated to de-epithelialized cornea within 3 days. The defect epithelial area decreased gradually to (46+/-8)% of original injury one week after the transplanting the living bandage.
Conclusions :
The living bandage provided a rapid approach to transplant copious cells onto severe injured cornea. The higher density of epithelial cells and lager size of the living bandage robustly increase the transplanted cell number and facilitate epithelial healing. Besides, epithelium can easily migrate off the living bandage and adhere on injured cornea. The detached cells kept proliferating and gradually recover the severe epithelium defect which indicated the potential of the living bandage as a novel approach to transplant planar tissues.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.