Research progress of ocular surface reconstruction with ex vivo cultured tissue engineered cell sheet

Limbal stem cells (LSCs), the source of corneal epithelial cells, play an important role in the ocular surface.In recent years, with the development of somatic stem cell application and tissue engineering, biomaterials and cell culture technology, progress has been made on the basic researches and clinical applications of ocular surface reconstruction with ex vivo cultured limbal epithelial and oral mucosal epithelial cell sheet transplantation.However, there are several issues, including the successful clinical outcomes for ocular surface reconstruction, and the in vivo tracking of donor stem cells, remained indefinitive.This article introduced and compared recent advancements of tissue engineering techniques ex vivo cultured autologous or allogeneic limbal, oral mucosal epithelial cells in ocular surface reconstruction, so as to provide a useful direction for the future research of ocular surface reconstruction.