ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biomechanics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1603679
This article is part of the Research TopicOptobiomechanics of the EyeView all 11 articles
Hierarchical biomechanical characterisation of riboflavin-UVA crosslinking and decorin treatment in the porcine cornea
Provisionally accepted
- 1Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
- 2Diamond Light Source (United Kingdom), Didcot, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
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We employed a combination of synchrotron X-ray scattering, biomechanical testing and analytical modelling to elucidate the hierarchical structural changes in the porcine corneal stroma caused by riboflavin/UVA crosslinking and decorin treatment. Riboflavin/UVA crosslinking stiffened corneas by approximately 60% while decorin treatment did not significantly affect the mechanical properties. Correlations between fibril elongation caused by applied tensile strain and bulk stiffness were used to approximate fibril stiffness, values for which were relatively similar for control and treatment groups, compared with the magnitude of difference in the bulk stiffness alone. This implied the bulk stiffening caused by crosslinking was not primarily due to increases in fibril stiffness. Instead, trends in bulk fibril reorientation and straightening/uncrimping imply the stiffening is attributable to enhanced interconnectivity of the fibrillar stroma, leading to greater fibril recruitment fraction. The techniques reported here are applicable to a wide range of tissues for the evaluation of new, existing and adjuvant therapies.
Keywords: Riboflavin/UVA Crosslinking, Decorin, Cornea, Biomechanics, Synchrotron x-ray scattering, Collagen, crimp
Received: 31 Mar 2025; Accepted: 29 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bell, Morgan, Shebanova, Evans, Boote, Terrill, Meek and Hayes. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: James Bell, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
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