Abstract
Cell-based therapies have been emerged to find innovative solutions for corneal endothelial dysfunction. The aim of this study is to investigate the suitability of a blended scaffold containing human platelet lysate (HPL) and fibrin not only for cultivating human corneal endothelial cells (HCECs) but also for serving as a scaffold for the respected cells. We isolated HCECs from human donors and encapsulated the cells with three concentrations of HPL/Fibrin scaffold, namely HPL/Fibrin 1, HPL/Fibrin 2 and HPL/Fibrin 3, by adding 28.9, 57.8 and 86.7 mg/dl of fibrinogen to HPL to obtain a final percentage of 10, 20 and 30 % of fibrinogen, respectively. SEM imaging and swelling test were done to characterize the scaffolds. Cell viability assay and cell counting were performed on the cells. HCECs were characterized by morphology and immunocytochemistry. SEM imaging on freeze-dried scaffolds showed higher porosity of HPL/Fibrin 1 and HPL/Fibrin 2 than HPL/Fibrin 3, but larger pores were observed only in HPL/Fibrin 1. Cellular attachment and morphology on HPL/Fibrin 1 were appropriate by SEM imaging. A higher swelling rate was observed in HPL/Fibrin 1. After 3 and 5 days, higher numbers of cells were observed specifically in HPL/Fibrin 1. A higher expression of Na+/K+-ATPase, ZO-1 and vimentin proteins was detected in the HPL/Fibrin 1-cultured HCECs as compared with control (no scaffold). HPL/Fibrin can be used as a suitable scaffold for HCECs while preserving the cells viability. Further investigations are necessitated to approve the beneficial effects of the suggested scaffold for delivering and transplantation of cultivated HCECs into the anterior chamber of the eye.
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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We express our gratitude to the Central Eye Bank of Iran for providing the donor eyes.
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The manuscript was funded by Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (Grant number: 15739-5).
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Full ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of the Central Eye Bank of Iran and the ethics committee of the Ophthalmic Research Center (IR.SBMU.ORC.REC.1398.012), Research Institute for Ophthalmology and Vision Science, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
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Mishan, M.A., Balagholi, S., Chamani, T. et al. Potential of a novel scaffold composed of human platelet lysate and fibrin for human corneal endothelial cells. Cell Tissue Bank 23, 171–183 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10561-021-09931-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10561-021-09931-x