The Cellular Control of Corneal Development and Transparency and Generation of Biomimetic Corneal Tissue.

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The cornea is the clear tissue at the front of the eye, which transmits light and focuses it sharply onto the retina. Accordingly, it is absolutely essential for vision. Composed mostly of collagen, the cornea is not unlike other collagen-rich tissues, such as tendons, cartilages, intervertebral discs, or even the sclera; the "white of the eye". But what makes the cornea optically clear is the exquisite way in which the collagen is structured.Collagen in the human body exists predominantly in the form of long fibres, which are very strong along their axes, and can be thought of as having mechanical properties rather like ropes on sailing ships or steel cables on suspension bridges. The organisation of collagen fibres in different tissues is contingent on the tissue's function, and the predominant requirement is usually mechanical. The cornea is unique in this regard because as well as the need to fulfil mechanical requirements, it needs to be transparent.The bulk of the cornea is made up of cells, known as keratocytes, and collagen. Most collagen exists in the form of very long and very thin fibres, or fibrils as they are called in the cornea because they are so thin. Remarkably, and unlike all the other collagen-rich tissues in the body, collagen fibrils in cornea are all of exactly the same diameter and are arranged into a near-perfect, hexagonal-type lattice. It is this precise structural arrangement of collagen which gives the cornea its transparency. But, how does it arise?Keratocytes in the cornea synthesise and deposit collagen. So, presumably these cells must be at least partly responsible for the way in which the collagen fibrils are laid down and arranged. We will use pioneering microscopic approaches across a wide range of magnifications, using laser and electron imaging technologies and working with scientists in the University of California, to study corneas from developing chicks in fertilised hen eggs. Our aim is to understand precisely how cells in the developing cornea interact with each other to make such a beautifully structured tissue as a transparent cornea (the basis of corneal transparency in the chick is the same as that in humans). Recently, we pioneered the use of three-dimensional volume electron microscopy for the study of cornea, and discovered that cells in the developing chick cornea all have highly extended, but thin, cell processes. This showed that the cells themselves occupy a volume of the cornea which is much larger than previously believed. Based on this discovery, our hypothesis is that cells in the developing cornea form an extended network in which they communicate with each other, and that, as a group, they have the innate ability to synthesise incredibly thin collagen fibrils and deposit them into a precise lattice-like arrangement to meet the needs of transparency. To test this hypothesis we will study corneas from the very earliest stages of development, which have never before been examined in three dimensions at such high magnifications. New methodologies for the mathematical modelling of corneal light transmission will be applied to this data to ascertain the key structural requirements for corneal transparency. We will also investigate the cellular contribution to corneal transparency, both by mathematical modelling and by direct measurement of light scattering.Finally, we will interfere with cell-communication pathways in corneal keratocytes, extracted from developing chick corneas and grown in the lab, to pinpoint what molecular mechanisms they use to communicate. These experiments and analyses, using a new way of growing cells in a three-dimensional environment, which we successfully developed to encourage tendon cells to synthesise aligned collagen fibres, will provide great insights for the field of corneal tissue engineering to help inform the intelligent design of the next generation of bioengineered corneal constructs.