Background: The number of corneal transplantations has increased in Germany in recent years. One reason is an earlier time point of surgery due to less invasive posterior lamellar grafting techniques. To date, penetrating and lamellar corneal transplantations are the only established therapeutic options to treat corneal diseases resulting from endothelial cell pathologies.
Aim: This review article provides an insight into nanoparticle-related translational strategies to improve or to avoid corneal transplantation.
Results: Nanoparticle-based strategies for optimization of the corneal endothelium have different fields of application: 1. during donor cornea cultivation in culture medium, 2. for single cell injection therapies and 3. to treat the patients' own endothelium in an effort to avoid transplantation.
Conclusion: Several translational concepts exist to improve or to avoid grafting of a donor cornea. The coming decade will provide established alternatives to conventional corneal transplantation.
Keywords: Cell therapy; Cornea donation; Corneal diseases; Corneal transplantation; Translation approach.