Functional Innervation in Tissue Engineered Models for InVitro Study and Testing Purposes

The biotechnology industry is rapidly expanding and the emer-ging field of tissue engineering is projected to have a high impact in the near future. Recently the field of cellular, drug, and prosthetic delivery has melded with the field of tissue engineering to make simulated tissues. In addition to their roles as tissue substitutes for transplantation, these simulated tissuesmay providemore accu-ratemodels and environments for toxicology testing and the studyof peripheral nerves. The current study demonstrates the importance of innervation, in general, for the function of engineered tissues.We observe that the presence of nerves in a tissue engineered (TE) human cornea model enhances the growth of the epithelium and the formation of its protectivemucin layer. Innervation also confers protection to the epithelium from chemical insult, as determined by the level of post-treatment epithelial cell death. We demonstrate differential responses of the nerves to chemical stimuli by changes i