Bioengineering human corneal stromal tissue by surface guidance of human corneal stromal stem cells

摘要

On highly aligned PEUU fibrous substrates, hCSSCs could secrete and self-organize a type-Ⅰ collagen-based ECM with protein expression patterns typical of human corneal stromal tissue. Spatial self-organization of the ECM could be tuned by growth factor addition. Incoporation of bFGF and TGF-β3 induced multilayered lamellae with orthogonally-oriented collagen fibrils, in a pattern mimicking human corneal stromal tissue. This study provides a new approach to the bioengineering of a well-organized, collagen-based construct with appropriate nanoscale structure for corneal repair and regeneration.