UV Absorbance of a Bioengineered Corneal Stroma Substitute in the 240-400 nm Range

PURPOSE: To determine the UV absorbance of a bioengineered human corneal stroma construct based on fibrin and fibrin-agarose scaffolds in the 240-400 nm range. METHODS: Three types of artificial substitutes of the human corneal stroma were developed by tissue engineering using fibrin and fibrin with 0.1% and 0.2% agarose scaffolds with human keratocytes immersed within. After 28 days of culture, the UV absorbance of each sample was determined using a spectrophotometer. The thickness of corneal stroma samples was determined by light microscope. RESULTS: For all the 3 types of corneal stroma substitutes studied, the range of the UV absorbance values was similar to that of the native human corneal stroma, although the fibrin with 0.1% agarose stroma substitute had the best UV filtering properties. The higher UV absorbance of the artificial substitute of the human corneal stroma was in the UV-B and -A ranges, suggesting that these artificial tissues could have potential clinical usefulness and proper UV light-absorption capabilities. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that the bioengineered human corneal substitute of fibrin with 0.1% agarose is an effective absorber of harmful UV radiation and could therefore be potentially useful.