Physics Commons^™

A Tissue-Engineered Human Trabecular Meshwork Hydrogel For Advanced Glaucoma Disease Modeling, Haiyan Li, Tyler Bagué, Alexander Kirschner, Ana N. Strat, Haven Roberts, Robert W. Weisenthal, Alison E. Patteson, Nasim Annabi, W. Daniel Stamer, Preethi S. Ganapathy, Samuel Herberg

Physics - All Scholarship

Abnormal human trabecular meshwork (HTM) cell function and extracellular matrix(ECM) remodeling contribute to HTM stiffening in primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). Most current cellular HTM model systems do not sufficiently replicate the complex native three dimensional (3D) cell-ECM interface, limiting their use for investigating POAG pathology. Tissue-engineered hydrogels are ideally positioned to overcome shortcomings of current models. Here, we report a novel biomimetic HTM hydrogel and test its utility as a POAG disease model. HTM hydrogels were engineered by mixing normal donor-derived HTM cells with collagen type I, elastin-like polypeptide and hyaluronic acid, each containing photoactive functional groups, …