Biocompatibility of hydroxyapatite modified titanium skirt for keratoprosthesis / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Titanium implants as a safe biological material have been used to produce the artificial Russian titanium cornea, but complications stil exist, including artificial cornea shift, leakage, corneal tissue melting and artificial cornea discharge. OBJECTIVE:To evaluate in vivo biocompatibility of hydroxyapatite modified titanium skirt for keratoprosthesis in alkali burn cornea. METHODS:A total of 30 alkali burned New Zealand white rabbit corneas were divided into three group groups. Hydroxyapatite modified titanium skirt (experimental group) and titanium skirt (control group) were respectively inserted into the corneal stroma of rabbits. In the blank control group, only a lamel ar corneal incision was made. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Al skirts were stable without necrosis, melting and exclusion during the observation period. The number of inflammatory cells in the experimental and control groups was significantly higher than that in the blank control group at 2 and 8 weeks postoperatively (P<0.05), but there was no difference in inflammatory cellinfiltration among different groups by the 16th week. The number of corneal fibroblasts increased significantly in the experimental group compared with the control and blank control group after 2, 8, 16 weeks (P<0.05). The extracellular matrix deposited on the surface of hydroxyapatite modified titanium skirt was denser and tighter than that on the surface of titanium skirt. It indicates that hydroxyapatite modified titanium skirt for keratoprosthesis can promote the interfacial biointegration of skirt and host cornea.