IOENGINEERING EQUIVALENTS OF THE CORNEAL STROMA BASED ON THE MATERIALS ALTERNATIVE TO COLLAGEN

Purpose: to examine the state of the problem to create an artificial cornea based on the analysis of literature for the last 10 years.Material and methods. We have studied the results of the research based on 42 foreign scientific sources. In these publications the authors offer the following materials: gelatin hydrogels, acellular cornea, collagen-like peptides, silk fibroin and synthetic polymers.Results and discussion. Unlike collagen, these bioconstructions are more stable in biomechanical properties but cause a morepronounced immune response of the body after transplantation. Only gelatin hydrogels cause a lesser antigenic reaction. Collagenlike short peptides have the ability to selfassemble and create chains with desired properties. This process resembles an embryonic development of the cornea. The cornea of pigs treated by different methods is used to create an acellular cornea which has low immunogenicity and structurally is close to the native cornea. The silk fibroin is characterized by high strength and is used as an alternative to the amniotic membrane. Synthetic polymers are often used in combination with native compounds of the extracellular matrix. The destruction of these substrates depends on the concentration of polymers and takes a long time.Conclusions. Thus, despite a wide variety of the proposed non-collagen materials for the creation of the artificial cornea, further search for optimal bioconstructions with donor corneal qualities is required.

artificial cornea, bioengineering, gelatin hydrogels, collagen-like peptids, acellular cornea, synthetic polymers, silkfibroin

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