Paterson, T.E. orcid.org/0000-0002-2951-115X, Dhowre, H.S., Villanueva, D. et al. (6 more authors) (2021) Tuning electrospun substrate stiffness for the fabrication of a biomimetic amniotic membrane substitute for corneal healing. ACS Applied Bio Materials, 4 (7). pp. 5638-5649. ISSN 2576-6422
Abstract
Corneal blindness is the fourth most common cause of vision impairment worldwide with a high incidence in global south countries. A recently developed surgical technique for treating corneal blindness is simple limbal epithelial transplantation (SLET), which uses small pieces of healthy limbal tissue (limbal explants) delivered to the damaged eye using the human amniotic membrane (AM) as a carrier. SLET relies on the use of tissue banks for the AM that reduces the availability of the technique. Replacing the AM with a synthetic membrane is key to making SLET more accessible to those who need it. Previous research has demonstrated the suitability of electrospun poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) scaffolds as AM substitutes, and here, we report how these membranes can be tailored to mimic fundamental AM mechanical properties. To modify the stiffness of PLGA electrospun membranes, we explored different electrospinning solvent systems (1,1,1,3,3,3,-hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP), dichloromethane (DCM), chloroform, and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF)) and the use of plasticizers (PEG400 and glycerol). PEG400 was found to reduce stiffness from 60 MPa to around 4 MPa, approaching the values shown by the native AM. The biocompatibility of membranes with and without PEG400 was found to be comparable, and cell outgrowth from rabbit/porcine explants was successfully observed on the materials after 3 weeks. This research underpins the manufacture of next-generation fibrous biomimetic membranes that will ultimately be used as amniotic membrane substitutes for biomedical applications including SLET.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 American Chemical Society. |
Keywords: | electrospinning; substrate stiffness; amniotic membrane; cornea; SLET |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering (Sheffield) The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Sheffield) The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) > School of Clinical Dentistry (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Medical Research Council MC_PC_17176 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 20 Jan 2022 12:05 |
Last Modified: | 20 Jan 2022 12:05 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Chemical Society (ACS) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1021/acsabm.1c00436 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:182754 |