Beschreibung:
<jats:p>The corneal stroma is composed of many layers of fibroblasts and collagen that are oriented longitudinally within a layer and the layers display a shift of approximately 60‐degree angle between each other. This type of structure is known to be responsible for the transparency of the cornea. Using the self‐assembly approach to cultured cell sheets, we evaluated how cell‐secreted collagen reaction could be influenced by external physical cues. Microstructured polystyrene samples used for cell culture were prepared by hot embossing, replicated and transferred from a Si master of different grating periods and linewidths to a polystyrene substrate. We observed that cell division occurred only in the longitudinal axis of the gratings instead of the random cell orientation seen in the control. Cells forming the first layer on the substrate aligned themselves in the same longitudinal direction as the gratings. We also observed that after 7 days in culture the cells of the second layer, forming on top of the first one, aligned themselves at an angle of approximately 60 degree from the first one, and so did the cell‐secreted collagen fibres. These results are very promising for the reconstruction of autologous tissue‐engineered cornea since optimization of transparency is of paramount importance for the patients who will benefit from this type of surgery.</jats:p><jats:p>Financial support is provided by the National Research Council‐Canadian Institutes of Health Research (grant 66473).</jats:p>