Damaged corneas can lead to blindness. Due to the worldwide shortage of donor corneas there is a tremendous unmet demand for a robust corneal replacement that supports growth of the major corneal cell types. Commercial artificial corneas comprise plastic polymers that do not adequately support diverse cell growth. We present a new class of protein elastomer-dominated synthetic corneas with attractive performance that intimately couple biologically active tropoelastin to mechanically robust and durable protein silk. Fabricated films substantially replicate the natural cornea physically and by interacting with both key cells types used in cornea repair. Performance encompasses optical clarity at high transmittance, compatible refractive index, substantial glucose permeability, compliant mechanical properties, and support of both growth and function of corneal epithelial and endothelial cells.

中文翻译：

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具有光学稳定性，高渗透性和弹性的蛋白质膜，可支持两种角膜细胞类型。

受损的角膜可导致失明。由于世界范围内供体角膜的短缺，对支持主要角膜细胞类型生长的健壮角膜替代物有巨大的未满足需求。商业人造角膜包含不能充分支持多种细胞生长的塑料聚合物。我们提出了一种新型的蛋白质弹性体为主的合成角膜，其具有引人注目的性能，可将生物活性原弹性蛋白与机械坚固耐用的蛋白质丝紧密结合。制成的薄膜可以物理地并通过与用于角膜修复的两种关键细胞类型相互作用来复制天然角膜。性能包括高透射率下的光学透明度，相容的折射率，相当大的葡萄糖渗透性，顺应的机械性能，