Abstract
Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is a biocompatible, transparent hydrogel with physical strength that makes it promising as a material for an artificial cornea. In our previous study, type I collagen was immobilized onto PVA (PVA‐COL) as a possible artificial cornea scaffold that can sustain a functional corneal epithelium. The cellular adhesiveness of PVA in vitro was improved by collagen immobilization; however, stable epithelialization was not achieved in vivo. To improve epithelialization in vivo, we created an amniotic membrane (AM)‐immobilized polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel (PVA‐AM) for use as an artificial cornea material. AM was attached to PVA‐COL using a tissue adhesive consisting of collagen and citric acid derivative (CAD) as a crosslinker. Rabbit corneal epithelial cells were air‐lift cultured with 3T3 feeder fibroblasts to form a stratified epithelial layer on PVA‐AM. The rabbit corneal epithelial cells formed 3–5 layers of keratin‐3‐positive epithelium on PVA‐AM. Occludin‐positive cells were observed lining the superficial epithelium, the gap‐junctional protein connexin43‐positive cells was localized to the cell membrane of the basal epithelium, while both collagen IV were observed in the basement membrane. Epithelialization over implanted PVA‐AM was complete within 2 weeks, with little inflammation or opacification of the hydrogel. Corneal epithelialization on PVA‐AM in rabbit corneas improved over PVA‐COL, suggesting the possibility of using PVA‐AM as a biocompatible hybrid material for keratoprosthesis. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 2006