New strategy for design and fabrication of polymer hydrogel with tunable porosity as artificial corneal skirt

- Porous polymer hydrogel was prepared by copolymerization and CaCO3 whisker as porogen.
- Physicochemical property of polymer hydrogel can be adjusted by CaCO3 whisker content.
- Porous polymer hydrogels possess good in vitro cell biocompatibility.
- Porous polymer hydrogel is promising for being developed as artificial corneal skirt.

In order to obtain an ideal material using for artificial corneal skirt, a porous polymer hydrogel containing 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), trimethylolpropane triacrylate (TMPTA) and butyl acrylate was prepared through one-step radical polymerization method and the usage of CaCO3 whisker as porogen. The physical-chemical properties of the fabricated polymer hydrogel can be adjusted by CaCO3 whisker content, such as pore size, porosity, water content of materials and surface topography. Then a series of cell biology experiments of human corneal fibroblasts (HCFs) were carried out to evaluate its properties as an artificial corneal skirt, such as the adhesion of cells on the materials with different pore size and porosity, the apoptosis on materials with different characteristics, the distribution of the cells on the material surface. The results revealed that high porosity not only could improve water content of hydrogel, but also strengthen the adhesion of HCFs on hydrogel. In addition, high porosity hydrogel with the whisker shape of pores showed much elongate spindle-like morphology than those low porosity hydrogels. MTT assay certified that the resulted polymer hydrogel material possessed excellent biocompatibility and was suitable for HCFs growing, making it promising for being developed as artificial corneal skirt.