Cultivation of Human Oral Mucosal Explants on Contact Lenses

ABSTRACTPurpose/Aim: Autologous cultivated oral mucosal (OM) epithelial transplantation has been successfully used as corneal epithelial replacement in bilateral limbal stem cell deficiency. Recently, lotrafilcon A contact lens (CL) surface was described as a suitable carrier for cultured stem cells in corneal epithelial transplantation. Our aim was to establish explant cultures from human OM on CL carriers that are free of animal-derived materials and feeder cells.Materials and methods: Human cadaveric 2 mm OM explants were sutured onto CL surfaces and cultivated with fetal calf serum (FCS) or human serum (HS) supplemented culture medium without feeder cells. Confluent cultures were harvested and evaluated morphologically with hematoxylin and eosin stain and with immunofluorescence microscopy for the presence of p63, vimentin and cytokeratins (CK) 3, 4, 13 and 14.Results: Confluent cell sheets covering the whole CL surface were produced from OM explants after 2 weeks of culture with HS and after 3 weeks ...