Advances in materials of keratoprosthesis and tissue engineering cornea

Although allograft corneal transplantation has made great progress, keratoprothesis implantation is the only one hope, for both the patients who has fleshy pannus corneal vitiligo and the patients with the failure corneal transplantation surgery whose far sight is only light perceptions to recover their eye sight. To gain success and reduce complications, a lot of work has been done in keratoprosthesis materials and type, but heterogeneity and bio-compatibility are not solved totally. Because of development in the cell culture and tissue engineering, cornea ex vivo culture has gain a critical success. From cell option to carrier using, reconstructed three dimensional culture and epithelium equivalent mimicked human corneas in key morphology and function and were used in basic and clinical investigation. This article reviews the development of materials of keratoprosthesis and tissue engineering cornea.