Human corneal endothelial cell growth on a silk fibroin membrane

Autor: Traian V. Chirila, Damien G. Harkin, Talia Giovenco, Jonathan N.X. Lai, Karina A. George, Peter W. Madden
Rok vydání: 2011
Předmět:
Zdroj: Biomaterials. 32:4076-4084
ISSN: 0142-9612
DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2010.12.034
Popis: Tissue engineering of the cornea could overcome shortages of donor corneas for transplantation and improve quality. Our aim was to grow an endothelial layer on a substratum suitable for transplant. Silkworm (Bombyx mori) fibroin was prepared as 5 μm thick transparent membranes. The B4G12 cell line was used to assess attachment and growth of human corneal endothelial cells on fibroin and compare this with a reference substratum of tissue-culture plastic. To see if cell attachment and proliferation could be improved, we assessed coatings of collagen IV, FNC Coating Mix(®) and a chondroitin sulphate-laminin mixture. All the coatings improved the final mean cell count, but consistently higher cell densities were achieved on a tissue-culture plastic rather than fibroin substratum. Collagen-coated substrata were the best of both groups and collagen-coated fibroin was comparable to uncoated tissue-culture plastic. Only fibroin with collagen coating achieved cell confluency. Primary human corneal endothelial cells were then grown using a sphere-forming technique and when seeded onto collagen-coated fibroin they grew to confluency with polygonal morphology. We report the first successful growth of primary human corneal endothelial cells on coated fibroin as a step in evaluating fibroin as a substratum for the transplantation of tissue-constructs for endothelial keratoplasty.
Databáze: OpenAIRE