Surface Modified Poly(vinyl alcohol) Nanofiber for the Artificial Corneal Stroma

摘要

Previously we have found that the immobilization of Type I collagen on the poly(vinyl alcohol)(PVA) hydrogel disc was effective in supporting adhesion and growth of the corneal epithelium and stromal cell in vitro. But the durability of the produced corneal epithelium layer in vivo has some problem. We hypothesized the cell construction force is much stronger than the force of the cell adhesion on the flat modified PVA surfaces. Therefore the improvement of mechanical anchoring force between the substrate and formed corneal cell layer maybe become one of the solving methods. In this study, we prepared the PVA nanofiber mat by using the electrospinning method and the surface modification of the PVA nanofiber was studied to improve the durability of the corneal epithelium layer. The collagen-immobilized PVA nanofiber sheets could support the adhesion and proliferation of rabbit corneal epithelial cells. And the stratified corneal epithelium structure was observed on the PVA nanofiber sheets when the epithelium was co-cultured with rabbit corneal stromal cells. It means that the corneal epithelium was well differentiated on the collagen immobilized PVA nanofiber sheet. The stability of the corneal epithelium layer on the PVA was dramatically improved; the stratified epithelium layer was kept for two weeks after the differentiation introduction, totally after one month. A light transmittance of these materials is not yet enough. Further study to improve the transmission of light, is required.