Ocular tissue engineering: current and future directions

Tissue engineering (TE) is a concept that was first emerged in the early 1990s to provide solutions to severe injured tissues and/or organs [1]. The dream was to be able to restore and replace the damaged tissue with an engineered version which would ultimately help overcome problems such as donor shortages, graft rejections, and inflammatory responses following transplantation. While an incredible amount of progress has been made, suggesting that TE concept is viable, we are still not able to overcome major obstacles. In TE, there are two main strategies that researchers have adopted: (1) cell-based, where cells are been manipulated to create their own environment before transplanted to the host, and (2) scaffold-based, where an extracellular matrix is created to mimic in vivo structures. TE approaches for ocular tissues are available and have indeed come a long way, over the last decades; however more clinically relevant ocular tissue substitutes are needed. Figure 1 highlights the importance of TE in ocular applications and indicates the avenues available based on each tissue.[...].