A novel human donor cornea preservation cocktail incorporating a thermo-reversible gelation polymer (TGP), enhancing the corneal endothelial cell density maintenance and explant culture of corneal limbal cells.

Purpose: McCarey-Kaufman's (MK) medium and Optisol-GS medium are the most commonly employed media for human donor corneal preservation. In this study, we evaluated the preservation efficacy of discarded human donor corneas using a Thermo-reversible gelation polymer (TGP) added to these two media.

Methods: Thirteen human corneal buttons collected from deceased donors, which were otherwise discarded due to low endothelial cell density (ECD) were used.