The ocular surface is vulnerable to myriad insults including mechanical, chemical and thermal injuries. The resulting trauma may render the naturally occurring regenerative properties of the cornea incapable of restoring a healthy epithelial surface with a resultant loss of corneal transparency and vision. Bioengineered scaffolds derived from silk have been used to restore function to damaged tissues in number of organ systems. Although some progress has been made in ocular surface reconstruction, the emphasis has been on mechanisms to cultivate cells, while less focus has been placed on identifying means to alter the substrate on which the ocular surface epithelium is destined to grow. The proposal has 2 aims: 1) To determine the optimal nanoscale surface features promoting corneal epithelial cell adhesion and migration, and 2) To optimize cell adhesion and migration on silk films using peptide surface modifications. The above exploratory Aims will examine our hypothesis that nanoscale features and surface modifications are critical for the adhesion, proliferation and migration of corneal epithelial cells vivo.
The Aims will lay the groundwork for future experiments combining modifications of ocular surface epithelial cell substrates using thin silk films as conduits for potential bioengineered ocular surface reconstruction.
The ocular surface is vulnerable to myriad insults including mechanical, chemical and thermal injuries. The resulting trauma may render the naturally occurring regenerative properties of the cornea incapable of restoring a healthy epithelial surface with a resultant loss of corneal transparency and vision. We propose to design bioengineered tissues composed of with surface properties that will facilitate repair of the eye.
Kang, Kai B; Lawrence, Brian D; Gao, X Raymond et al. (2017) Micro- and Nanoscale Topographies on Silk Regulate Gene Expression of Human Corneal Epithelial Cells. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 58:6388-6398 |
Lawrence, Brian D; Pan, Zhi; Rosenblatt, Mark I (2012) Silk film topography directs collective epithelial cell migration. PLoS One 7:e50190 |
Lawrence, Brian D; Pan, Zhi; Liu, Aihong et al. (2012) Human corneal limbal epithelial cell response to varying silk film geometric topography in vitro. Acta Biomater 8:3732-43 |
Lawrence, Brian D; Pan, Zhi; Weber, Michael D et al. (2012) Silk film culture system for in vitro analysis and biomaterial design. J Vis Exp : |
Liu, Jingbo; Lawrence, Brian D; Liu, Aihong et al. (2012) Silk fibroin as a biomaterial substrate for corneal epithelial cell sheet generation. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 53:4130-8 |
Lopez, Ivan A; Rosenblatt, Mark I; Kim, Charles et al. (2009) Slc4a11 gene disruption in mice: cellular targets of sensorineuronal abnormalities. J Biol Chem 284:26882-96 |