Abstract:

To evaluate corneal transparency maintaining effects of tissue-engineered human corneal endothelia (TE-HCEs), the TE-HCEs were in vitro reconstructed with seeder cells of a monoclonal cell strain with a normal karyotype, screened out from an untransfected HCE cell line, and scaffold carriers of modified denuded amniotic membrane. Penetrating keratoplasty with TE-HCEs was performed in New Zealand white rabbits whose corneal posterior lamellars had been ripped off. The status of corneal edema and immune rejection of the transplanted eyes was observed and monitored by the naked eye, the corneal transparency of transplanted eyes was examined by a slit-lamp biomicroscope, and the CM-DiI label of cells was validated by a fluorescent microscope. The observation and examination results of transplanted rabbit eyes showed no negative responses such as corneal edema and immune rejection, and the corneas of transplanted eyes maintained transparency for as long as 100 days. Also, the cells in the transplanted area of the corneal endothelium, with a CM-DiI label, were all the seeder cells from reconstructed TE-HCEs. In conclusion, in vitro reconstructed TE-HCEs can maintain long term corneal transparency of the transplanted eyes of New Zealand White Rabbits be used  promisingly as HCE equivalents for clinical therapy of corneal endothelium uncompensation and primary corneal endotheliopathy.

Key words: tissue-engineered human corneal endothelium; in vitro reconstruction; New Zealand white rabbits; corneal endothelium transplantation; cornea; transparency