Your new experience awaits. Try the new design now and help us make it even better

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.

Sec. Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

A Mobile System for Whole Eye Perfusion Supporting Retinal Function and Surgery

Provisionally accepted
Maxwell LohssMaxwell Lohss1,2Katelin Susanne SamskiKatelin Susanne Samski3Alkiviades LiasisAlkiviades Liasis3,4,5,6Hamzah AweidahHamzah Aweidah3Chiaki KomatsuChiaki Komatsu7Oliver BealeOliver Beale3Daniel M.W. LeeDaniel M.W. Lee3,8Ethan RossiEthan Rossi3,8,9Sanjeev G ShroffSanjeev G Shroff8,9José A. SahelJosé A. Sahel10,11,3S. Tonya StefkoS. Tonya Stefko12,13,3Leah ByrneLeah Byrne14,3,8,9*
  • 1Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, United States
  • 2Radiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States
  • 3Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, United States
  • 4Department of Ophthalmology, University of Nicosia Medical School, Nicosia, Cyprus
  • 5Electrophysiology Service, Pantheo Eye Center, Limassol, Cyprus
  • 6Department of Population, Policy, and Practice, University College London, London, United Kingdom
  • 7Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, United States
  • 8University of Pittsburgh, Department of Bioengineering, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
  • 9University of Pittsburgh McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Pittsburgh, United States
  • 10INSERM, CNRS, Sorbonne Universite, Institut de la vision, Paris, France
  • 11Centre Hospitalier National d'Ophthalmologie des Quinze-Vingts, Paris, France
  • 12University of Pittsburgh, Department of Otolaryngology, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
  • 13University of Pittsburgh, Department of Neurological Surgery, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
  • 14University of Pittsburgh Department of Neurobiology, Pittsburgh, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Select one of your emails

You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:

Notify me on publication

Please enter your email address:

If you already have an account, please login

You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here

The use of human donor tissue has the potential to accelerate translational research and support the development of effective human medicines. However, post-mortem sample degradation and the loss of anatomical context limits the utility of primary tissue. Here, an ex vivo perfusion platform, the Advancing Straight-to-Human Eye Research (ASTHER) system, was designed to perfuse whole eyes with autologous blood to support ex vivo viability. The system was designed for portability and compatibility with modern surgical techniques. Feasibility trials of ophthalmic artery cannulation, arterial perfusion, retinal imaging, and electroretinography with the ASTHER platform were performed. Qualitative imaging and electroretinography confirmed post-enucleation retinal blood supply and neuronal function in perfused Yucatan mini pig eyes. Retinal surgery was performed in perfused eyes. A pilot study showed the applicability of the minipig enucleation and perfusion protocol in donated human tissue. Future validation studies of the ASTHER platform will quantify perfused tissue structure and function.

Keywords: Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope (AOSLO), Electroretinography (ERG), ex-vivo perfused eye, Fluorescein Angiography, Fundus, isolated perfused eye, living extracorporeal eye, optical coherence tomography (OCT)

Received: 05 Sep 2025; Accepted: 15 Dec 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Lohss, Samski, Liasis, Aweidah, Komatsu, Beale, Lee, Rossi, Shroff, Sahel, Stefko and Byrne. 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: Leah Byrne

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material