ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Med.
Sec. Ophthalmology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1592123
This article is part of the Research TopicBiomimetic Scaffold Materials for Engineering of in-vitro Tissue/Organ Models and in-vivo Tissue RepairView all articles
Research on the construction of corneal endothelium transplantation with acellular amniotic membrane as a scaffold
Provisionally accepted
- The Affiliated Hospital of Yunnan University, Kunming, China
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This study aimed to fabricate a human acellular amniotic membrane (HAAM) by utilizing sequential chemical treatments (including trypsin/EDTA, Triton X-100, sodium deoxycholate, and peracetic acid/ethanol) with physical agitation. Following lyophilization, the HAAM was sterilized, coated with fibronectin and chondroitin sulfate (FNC), and then seeded with immortalized human corneal endothelial cells (HCECs) to evaluate its biocompatibility. Biocompatibility was assessed through cell adhesion (microscopy), viability (CCK-8 and EdU assays), and proliferation. Functional validation included immunofluorescence detection of tight junction proteins (ZO-1), transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq), and quantitative PCR (qPCR) to evaluate the expression of genes regulating barrier function, ion transport, and extracellular matrix synthesis. Additionally, functional validation of the HAAM-based corneal endothelial transplantation membrane was performed by assessing the expression of key genes critical for endothelial function. The results demonstrated that the HAAM was successfully prepared with an intact collagen fiber structure. The corneal endothelial cells adhered closely to the HAAM scaffold and formed a continuous monolayer. Furthermore, the HAAM promoted cell viability and proliferation, exhibited positive expression of tight junction proteins, and upregulated key functional genes. Transcriptome analysis also identified genes regulating proliferation and matrix synthesis. In conclusion, the HAAM scaffold exhibits excellent transparency, mechanical properties, and biocompatibility, making it suitable for the attachment and proliferation of human corneal endothelial cells. It also effectively maintains the expression levels of key functional genes, thereby mimicking the characteristics of the natural corneal endothelial layer functionally and providing experimental evidence for its potential clinical application.
Keywords: Human acellular amniotic membrane, Corneal endothelium, decellularized, bioanalysis, cytocompatibility
Received: 19 Mar 2025; Accepted: 02 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Guo, Liang, Ke, Dong, He, Yang and Liu. 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:
Ji Yang, The Affiliated Hospital of Yunnan University, Kunming, China
Hai Liu, The Affiliated Hospital of Yunnan University, Kunming, China
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