Collagen membranes crosslinked by β-cyclodextrin polyrotaxane monoaldehyde with good biocompatibilities and repair capabilities for cornea repair

Abstract

Collagen is an excellent candidate for a cornea repair material. However, current use of collagen materials for cornea repair is limited by their insufficient mechanical properties. Herein, we used the β-cyclodextrin polyrotaxane monoaldehyde (β-CD-PR-4) a compound that has good biocompatibility for crosslinking collagen in order to obtain the appropriate cornea repair material, Col-β-CD-PR-4. We characterized the physical and chemical properties of Col-β-CD-PR-4 and compared it with that of collagen crosslinked by 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDC) and glutaraldehyde (GA). The results showed that Col-β-CD-PR-4 had an appropriate water content and good light transmittance. Compared to the other crosslinkers, Col-β-CD-PR-4 had better mechanical properties, especially tensile strength, suturability, and enzyme tolerance capacity. Col-β-CD-PR-4 also had high suture retention strength as demonstrated by suture experiments showing tight suturing on rabbit cornea. Moreover, Col-β-CD-PR-4 displayed good biocompatibility to human corneal epithelial cells in vitro. In vivo lamellar keratoplasty (LKP) results showed that cornea had epithelized completely in approximately 16 days, and the transparency was restored quickly in 4 weeks. No inflammation and corneal neovascularization were observed and corneal rejection reaction and keratoconus were not observed. Overall, Col-β-CD-PR-4 showed excellent potential for use in corneal tissue engineering.