Bio-fabrication for Regenerative Therapies on Corneal Tissue: A Perspective

Abstract

Tissue Engineering, an emerging interdisciplinary field of regenerative health care, is associated with constructing synthetic alternatives to preserve, enhance or restoration of biological tissues that have been degraded and/or injured. Corneal Transplantation (CT) is a restorative visual rehabilitation procedure; its success is contingent on donor tissue standard, recipient pathology and attentive postoperative care. Regenerative medicine has been employed to alleviate corneal disorders through stimulating tissue regeneration by offering the proper micro-environment, variables, cells and/or indications from the host. Degenerated tissue will be restored using a multitude of cell delivery strategies, notably the Extracellular Matrix (ECM) elements, exempted by promoting cell adherence, movement and development, imperative for tissue restoration and regeneration. Following this, the ECM imparts mechanical strength and elasticity to tissues, conveys bio-active cues which authorize cellular behavior, impacting alignment, adhesion, differentiation and upgrades their resilience and bio-availability. Different scaffolding approaches have emerged, leveraging distinct working principles and characteristics to clinically facilitate tissue repair and regeneration by providing structural support, mediating cell behavior and/or delivering bioactive cues within a biomimetic microenvironment. The field of ophthalmology is conveniently centered around bio-compatible apparatus like contact lenses for precise ocular surface regeneration, providing a non-invasive, oxygen-permeable architecture for cell adhesion and proliferation, specifically for disorders like limbal stem cell deficiency, upgrading patient satisfaction and reducing surgical hazards. These intuitive interventions in the field of eye care will be fundamental to expedite their extensive clinical accessibility and patient outcomes.

Keywords: Tissue engineering; Corneal transplantation; Extracellular matrix; Regenerative medicine; Scaffold