The human cornea as a model tissue for additive biomanufacturing: a review

© 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V. The recent development and clinical success of molded recombinant collagen corneal substitutes offers a tantalizing prospect for the application of additive biomanufacturing in corneal tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM). The cornea has a number of advantages over other tissues for additive biomanufacturing in that it is relatively homogeneous and completely avascular and has low metabolic demand. Additive biomanufacturing could bring a number of advantages over molding to corneal TERM, including increased visual acuity and mechanical strength. We have developed a method for producing thin collagen films, which are suitable for the culturing of corneal mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), using additive manufacturing techniques, and we hope to use this technique to produce functional corneal substitutes.

Publication year:2017

BOF-keylabel:yes

IOF-keylabel:yes

Authors from:Higher Education

Accessibility:Open