Development of artificial cornea using the tissue engineering approach.

Corneal disease is the 4th leading cause of global blindness. The severe shortage of human cornea donor drove the development of artificial cornea via tissue engineering as an alternative treatment. Hydrogel biomimetic properties and excellent biocompatibility stands as a potential scaffold material to solve this problem. This study made used of Poly (ethylene glycol) and poly (acrylic acid) as the network components for the fabrication of interpenetrating network (IPN) hydrogel. We managed to develop a novel IPN hydrogel with high Young’s Modulus required to resemble the natural cornea. Due to the unique mechanical property of IPN structure, the ductility and swelling capability of the hydrogel were not compromised. This is exceptionally important for the fabrication of prosthetic cornea with curvature and transparency that are essential for light entry. In addition, the swelling of IPN hydrogel allows the permeability of oxygen and nutrients for epithelial cells regeneration. In this study, we successfully addressed the bottleneck of the conventional single network hydrogel by providing IPN structure with ideal mechanical properties for the development of artificial cornea.Bachelor of Science in Biological Science