Electromechanical Cornea Reshaping for Refractive Vision Therapy.
ACS Biomater Sci Eng
; 9(2): 595-600, 2023 02 13.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36634100
ABSTRACT
The corneal stroma consists of orthogonally stacked collagen-fibril lamellae that determine the shape of the cornea and provide most of the refractive power of the eye. We have applied electromechanical reshaping (EMR), an electrochemical platform for remodeling cartilage and other semirigid tissues, to change the curvature of the cornea as a potential procedure for nonsurgical vision correction. EMR relies on short electrochemical pulses to electrolyze water, with subsequent diffusion of protons into the extracellular matrix of collagenous tissues; protonation of immobilized anions within this matrix disrupts the ionic-bonding network, leaving the tissue transiently responsive to mechanical remodeling. Re-equilibration to physiological pH restores the ionic matrix, resulting in persistent shape change of the tissue. Using ex vivo rabbit eyes, we demonstrate here the controlled change of corneal curvature over a wide range of refractive powers with no loss of optical transparency. Optical coherence tomography (OCT), combined with second-harmonic generation (SHG) and confocal microscopy, establish that EMR enables extremely fine control of corneal contouring while maintaining the underlying macromolecular collagen structure and stromal cellular viability, positioning electrochemical vision therapy as a potentially simple and ultralow-cost modality for correcting routine refractive errors.
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Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Córnea
/
Sustancia Propia
Límite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Revista:
ACS Biomater Sci Eng
Año:
2023
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos