Collagen-based bioengineered substitutes of donor corneal allograft implantation: assessment and hypotheses.

To fabricate donor corneal substitutes based on carbodiimide cross-linked porcine collagen, to study their in vitro and in vivo properties, and to elaborate new implantation techniques for the donor corneal collagen-based substitutes, this study had been performed. Bioengineered substitutes of corneal stroma (BSCS) were fabricated by cross-linking porcine type I collagen with 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethyl aminopropyl) carbodiimide and N-hydroxysuccinimide, as previously described. Their refractive indices were measured using an Abbe refractometer.