Cell-Laden Marine Gelatin Methacryloyl Hydrogels Enriched with Ascorbic Acid for Corneal Stroma Regeneration
Metadatos
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MDPI
Materia
Marine biomaterials Gelatin Codfish GelMA Keratocytes Cornea
Fecha
2023-01-04Referencia bibliográfica
Alves, A.L... [et al.]. Cell-Laden Marine Gelatin Methacryloyl Hydrogels Enriched with Ascorbic Acid for Corneal Stroma Regeneration. Bioengineering 2023, 10, 62. [https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering10010062]
Patrocinador
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (EAPA_151/2016); España–Portugal Programme through the project CVMar+I (0302_CVMAR_I_1_P); ATLANTIDA (Norte-01-0145-FEDER-000040); R&D Infrastructure TERM RES-Hub PINFRA/ 22190/2016 (Norte-01-0145-FEDER-022190); Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT); (PD/BD/127995/2016); CEEC program (CEECINST/00077/2018); Xunta de Galicia (Grupos de Potential Crecimiento, IN607B 2021/11)Resumen
Corneal pathologies from infectious or noninfectious origin have a significant impact on the
daily lives of millions of people worldwide. Despite the risk of organ rejection or infection, corneal
transplantation is currently the only effective treatment. Finding safe and innovative strategies is the
main goal of tissue-engineering-based approaches. In this study, the potential of gelatin methacryloyl
(GelMA) hydrogels produced from marine-derived gelatin and loaded with ascorbic acid (as
an enhancer of the biological activity of cells) was evaluated for corneal stromal applications. Marine
GelMA was synthesized with a methacrylation degree of 75%, enabling effective photocrosslinking,
and hydrogels with or without ascorbic acid were produced, encompassing human keratocytes. All
the produced formulations exhibited excellent optical and swelling properties with easy handling as
well as structural stability and adequate degradation rates that may allow proper extracellular matrix
remodeling by corneal stromal cells. Formulations loaded with 0.5 mg/mL of ascorbic acid enhanced
the biological performance of keratocytes and induced collagen production. These results suggest
that, in addition to marine-derived gelatin being suitable for the synthesis of GelMA, the hydrogels
produced are promising biomaterials for corneal regeneration applications.