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Towards an In Vitro Retinal Model to Study and Develop New Therapies for Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of vision loss in the elderly worldwide. So far, the etiology and the progression of AMD are not well known. Animal models have been developed to study the mechanisms involved in AMD; however, according to the “Three Rs” principle, alternat...

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Autores principales: Belgio, Beatrice, Boschetti, Federica, Mantero, Sara
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7911334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33499168
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering8020018
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author Belgio, Beatrice
Boschetti, Federica
Mantero, Sara
author_facet Belgio, Beatrice
Boschetti, Federica
Mantero, Sara
author_sort Belgio, Beatrice
collection PubMed
description Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of vision loss in the elderly worldwide. So far, the etiology and the progression of AMD are not well known. Animal models have been developed to study the mechanisms involved in AMD; however, according to the “Three Rs” principle, alternative methods have been investigated. Here we present a strategy to develop a “Three Rs” compliant retinal three-dimensional (3D) in vitro model, including a Bruch’s membrane model and retina pigment epithelium (RPE) layer. First, tensile testing was performed on porcine retina to set a reference for the in vitro model. The results of tensile testing showed a short linear region followed by a plastic region with peaks. Then, Bruch’s membrane (BrM) was fabricated via electrospinning by using Bombyx mori silk fibroin (BMSF) and polycaprolactone (PCL). The BrM properties and ARPE-19 cell responses to BrM substrates were investigated. The BrM model displayed a thickness of 44 µm, with a high porosity and an average fiber diameter of 1217 ± 101 nm. ARPE-19 cells adhered and spread on the BMSF/PCL electrospun membranes. In conclusion, we are developing a novel 3D in vitro retinal model towards the replacement of animal models in AMD studies.
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spelling pubmed-79113342021-02-28 Towards an In Vitro Retinal Model to Study and Develop New Therapies for Age-Related Macular Degeneration Belgio, Beatrice Boschetti, Federica Mantero, Sara Bioengineering (Basel) Article Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of vision loss in the elderly worldwide. So far, the etiology and the progression of AMD are not well known. Animal models have been developed to study the mechanisms involved in AMD; however, according to the “Three Rs” principle, alternative methods have been investigated. Here we present a strategy to develop a “Three Rs” compliant retinal three-dimensional (3D) in vitro model, including a Bruch’s membrane model and retina pigment epithelium (RPE) layer. First, tensile testing was performed on porcine retina to set a reference for the in vitro model. The results of tensile testing showed a short linear region followed by a plastic region with peaks. Then, Bruch’s membrane (BrM) was fabricated via electrospinning by using Bombyx mori silk fibroin (BMSF) and polycaprolactone (PCL). The BrM properties and ARPE-19 cell responses to BrM substrates were investigated. The BrM model displayed a thickness of 44 µm, with a high porosity and an average fiber diameter of 1217 ± 101 nm. ARPE-19 cells adhered and spread on the BMSF/PCL electrospun membranes. In conclusion, we are developing a novel 3D in vitro retinal model towards the replacement of animal models in AMD studies. MDPI 2021-01-22 /pmc/articles/PMC7911334/ /pubmed/33499168 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering8020018 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Belgio, Beatrice
Boschetti, Federica
Mantero, Sara
Towards an In Vitro Retinal Model to Study and Develop New Therapies for Age-Related Macular Degeneration
title Towards an In Vitro Retinal Model to Study and Develop New Therapies for Age-Related Macular Degeneration
title_full Towards an In Vitro Retinal Model to Study and Develop New Therapies for Age-Related Macular Degeneration
title_fullStr Towards an In Vitro Retinal Model to Study and Develop New Therapies for Age-Related Macular Degeneration
title_full_unstemmed Towards an In Vitro Retinal Model to Study and Develop New Therapies for Age-Related Macular Degeneration
title_short Towards an In Vitro Retinal Model to Study and Develop New Therapies for Age-Related Macular Degeneration
title_sort towards an in vitro retinal model to study and develop new therapies for age-related macular degeneration
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7911334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33499168
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering8020018
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