Silk fibroin/chitosan scaffolds for corneal tissue engineering: theoretical development and applications / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Keratitis,chemical injury,trauma,and other diseases often lead to irreparable damage to the corneal tissue,which can cause scars and finally vision loss.Corneal transplantation is the only way for treatment,but is of limit use by the deficiency of donors.Moreover,biosynthetic implants are expensive and complex.Silk fibroin and chitosan are common materials for tissue engineering and have been widely used as bio-scaffold materials.However,the technology applied in corneal repair is still in infant stage.OBJECTIVE:To systemically analyze the literature regarding the application of silk fibroin/chitosan scaffold materials in corneal repair,and to offer new directions and theoretical support for further studies on corneal repair.METHODS:A computer-based search of CNKI,WanFang and PubMed was performed for relevant articles with the keywords of "silk fibroin,chitosan,cornea,keratoprosthesis,scaffold".Then,we traced the development progress of silk fibroin/chitosan scaffolds in corneal repair and summarized its current applications and prospects.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:In total,178 articles were preliminarily retrieved,and finally,52 eligible articles were reviewed.(1) The silk fibroin/chitosan scaffold for corneal repair has low cytotoxicity and good biocompatibility.(2) This kind of scaffold supplies proper pericellular environmental for corneal cells that is good for hydroelectrolyte exchange.(3) The presence of ABCG2 protein implies that the scaffold offers possibilities of limbal stem cell proliferation.(4) Increasing animal model tests have shown that the scaffold can barely cause an inflammatory reaction of corneal cells,which is highy important to remain the vitreousness of corneal tissues.(5) Because of the deficiency of corneal donors,searching for new artificial materials for corneal repair is the developing direction of corneal transplantation.Silk fibroin chitosan scaffold has huge potential in this area,and it deserves more researches for clinical use in the future.