UTD researchers hope to push drug research forward bydeveloping technology that mimics the human eye, to provide some insight on howexactly the eye heals.
Researchers in the department of bioengineering at UTD areworking in collaboration with UT Southwestern Medical Center on the project.Professor of bioengineering and principal investigator David Schmidtke saidsmall ropelike bundles of collagen called fibrils and their aligned crisscrossarrangement in the eye is believed to have an effect on the healing of injuredeye tissue.
What were trying to do is create an in-vitro platform thatcan answer some of these questions, Schmidtke said. If we can mimic thestructure of these collagen fibrils and then combine them with growth factorsand grow cells on them, we can then see how important the alignment is to thesefibrils.
The experiment employed the use of microfluidic devices,small plastic pieces with thin hair-like channels that allow fluid to passthrough them, Schmidtke said. Graduate research assistant Kevin Lam said heworked on developing a substrate, a surface for the chemical reaction, thatwould mimic the structure of the cornea and provide a surface on which to placethe collagen fibrils.
In order to do that, we employed a microfluidic device thatwould attach over glass, Lam said. Then from that we infused a collagensolution.
A cold collagen solution was infused through themicrofluidic device while the device was on a hot plate, Lam said. This formedan aligned collagen fibril on top of the glass substrate he developed.
In normal wound healing, Schmitdke said, the keratocytes,which play a key role in maintaining the structure of the cornea, help repairinjury, leading to recovered normal vision. In abnormal wound healing, scartissue forms, impairing vision. The keratocytes are wedged between crisscrossinglayers of fibrils in the cornea, Schmidtke said.
Its thought that in wound healing, that keratocytes gettransformed, Schmidtke said. Whether you have normal wound healing, whereyouget your vision back versus scarring its thought that the topography orthe structures of these aligned fibrils plays an important role.
Possible applications of the research, Schmidtke said wouldbe to test the effects of certain drugs on eye healing.
Right now, its being used to understand some of the biologyof the cornea. Assuming that its an accurate mimic, then potentially you couldstart doing some drug screening assays, he said. If the cells behave similarto what they would do in vivo, then you can start looking at how drugs affectthe wound healing process.
See the article here:
Researchers Develop Eye Healing Model - THE MERCURY - The UTD Mercury
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