Premium
Characterization of Tunable Poly‐ ε ‐Lysine‐Based Hydrogels for Corneal Tissue Engineering
Author(s) -
Lace Rebecca,
Duffy Georgia L.,
Gallagher Andrew G.,
Doherty Kyle G.,
Maklad Osama,
Wellings Donald A.,
Williams Rachel L.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
macromolecular bioscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.924
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1616-5195
pISSN - 1616-5187
DOI - 10.1002/mabi.202100036
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , tissue engineering , stromal cell , cornea , economic shortage , carbodiimide , transparency (behavior) , biomedical engineering , materials science , chemistry , nanotechnology , polymer chemistry , computer science , ophthalmology , engineering , biology , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , computer security , government (linguistics) , cancer research
A family of poly‐ ε ‐lysine hydrogels can be synthesized by crosslinking with bis‐carboxylic acids using carbodiimide chemistry. In addition to creating hydrogels using a simple cast method, a fragmented method is used to introduce increased porosity within the hydrogel structure. Both methods have created tunable characteristics ranging in their mechanical properties, transparency, and water content, which is of interest to corneal tissue engineering and can be tailored to specific cellular needs and applications. With a worldwide shortage of cornea donor tissue available for transplant and limitations including rejection and potential infection, a synthetic material that can be used as a graft, or a partial thickness corneal replacement, would be an advantageous treatment method. These hydrogels can be tuned to have similar mechanical and transparency properties to the human cornea. They also support the attachment and growth of corneal epithelial cells and the integration of corneal stromal cells.