Corneal transplantation is a typical surgical procedure for severe corneal diseases. However, the waiting time for a donor cornea has gradually increased due to a decrease in supply caused by an aging population and increased cases of laser-based surgeries. Artificial corneas were developed to meet the increase in demand; however, these approaches have suffered from material deterioration resulted by the limited tissue integration. Here, we introduce a cornea-derived decellularized extracellular matrix (Co-dECM) as a bioink for corneal regeneration. The developed Co-dECM bioink had similar quantitative measurement results for collagen and GAGs compared with that of the native cornea and also had the proper transparency for vision. The differentiation potential of human turbinate-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hTMSCs) to a keratocyte lineage was only observed in the Co-dECM group. Moreover, the developed bioink did not have any cytotoxic effect on encapsulated cells for three-dimensional (3D) culture and has great biocompatibility evident by the xeno-implantation of the Co-dECM gel into mice and rabbits for two and one month, respectively. An in vivo safety similar to clinical-grade collagen was seen with the Co-dECM, which helped to maintain the keratocyte-specific characteristics in vivo, compared with collagen. Taken together, the Co-dECM bioink has the potential to be used in various types of corneal diseases based on its corneal-specific ability and design flexibility through 3D cell printing technology.

中文翻译：

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角膜特异性生物墨水的表征：高透明度，提高体内安全性。

角膜移植是治疗严重角膜疾病的典型手术方法。然而，由于人口老龄化导致供应减少以及激光手术病例增加，等待供体角膜的时间逐渐增加。人造角膜的开发是为了满足需求的增加；然而，这些方法因组织整合有限而导致材料劣化。在这里，我们引入了一种角膜来源的脱细胞细胞外基质（Co-dECM）作为角膜再生的生物墨水。与天然角膜相比，开发的 Co-dECM 生物墨水对胶原蛋白和 GAG 具有相似的定量测量结果，并且还具有适当的视觉透明度。仅在 Co-dECM 组中观察到人鼻甲来源的间充质干细胞 (hTMSC) 向角膜细胞谱系的分化潜力。此外，所开发的生物墨水对三维（3D）培养的封装细胞没有任何细胞毒性作用，并且通过将Co-dECM凝胶分别异种植入小鼠和兔子两个月和一个月，证明具有良好的生物相容性。Co-dECM 具有与临床级胶原蛋白相似的体内安全性，与胶原蛋白相比，它有助于在体内保持角膜细胞特异性特征。总而言之，Co-dECM 生物墨水凭借其角膜特异性能力和通过 3D 细胞打印技术的设计灵活性，有望用于各种类型的角膜疾病。