Advances in the construction of tissue-engineered cornea in vitro

Corneal transplantation is the most effective treatment for corneal blindness at present, but the shortage of cornea donation and graft rejection are the serious obstacles for its broad application.Construction of tissue-engineered corneal substitutes with good biocompatibility and normal biological function is emerging as a potential approach to overcome the shortages of donor corneas, and which will be a potential source of corneal grafts for corneal transplantation.With the development in the technology of biomaterials, cell culture and tissue engineering, the field of corneal tissue engineering has made great strides in scaffolds, seed cells and three-dimensional reconstruction recently, and also start to be used in clinical practice.The tissue-engineered cornea with good mechanical property, light transmittance and biocompatibility may serve as an ideal candidate in the treatment of corneal diseases.Amniotic membrane, acellular porcine corneal matrix, collagen, silk fibroin, and chitosan are frequently-used scaffold for cornea tissue engineering.Currently, immortalized and primary cultured corneal cells, embryonic stem cells, and adult stem cells have been reported to be used as seed cells in the construction of tissue-engineered cornea.This chapter reviewed the advances made in tissue-engineered cornea, including scaffolds, seed cells, and three-dimensional reconstruction.