New Hope in Development of Artificial Corneas

An hydrogel-based artificial cornea, which could restore the vision of more than 10 million blind people worldwide, is finally moving toward clinical reality.

Diseases and injuries of cornea, the clear front tissue of the eye, are the leading causes of blindness worldwide. The common treatment by transplants from donors is deficient, but the new analysis of polymer hydrogel materials shows great promises to find sufficient artificial cornea.

The study focuses on the new approaches based on hydrogels and other soft materials that encompass a variety of materials preparation strategies, from synthetic homopolymers and copolymers to collagen-based bio-copolymers and, finally, interpenetrating polymer networks. Each approach represents a unique strategy toward the same goal: to develop a new hydrogel that mimics the important properties of natural donor corneas. The anylysis provides a critical review of these approaches from a materials perspective and discuss recent experimental results. The rapid progress that has been made by investigators with these approaches is indicative that a synthetic donor cornea capable of surface epithelialization is now closer to becoming a clinical reality.

Source: http://pubs.acs.org