Progress in biomaterials of artificial Bruch membrane in RPE tissue engineering complex

Degenerative retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) may cause permanent visual loss.Although anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) and steroid injection can effectively treat early lesions of wet AMD, there is still a lack of treatment for dry AMD and late geographic atrophy.Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is essential to maintain visual function, and its dysfunction is associated with retinal degenerative diseases.RPE transplantation can replace the diseased cells to ensure the normal function of RPE and maintain retinal homeostasis.However, studies have shown that the short-term results of cell injection alone are difficult to maintain.Successful cell transplantation therapy must simultaneously improve the dysfunctional RPE cells and extracellular microenvironment, and the research and development of biomaterial scaffolds has become a key breakthrough.Tissue engineering offers a prospect for repairing retinal damage and restoring its function.Functional RPE monolayer transplantation needs to remodel the tight arrangement of polarized RPE, and tissue engineering can realize the growth of RPE on the biomaterial scaffold artificial Bruch membrane.Combined with scaffold culture, cell growth and transplantability can be better.This paper reviews the research status of artificial Bruch membrane materials supporting RPE culture, lists typical cases, and summarizes the specific classification, mechanical and biological characteristics of RPE scaffold materials to lay the foundation for developing new materials and promoting the clinical application of artificial Bruch membrane in RPE transplantation.

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