Biosafety of the New Soft Contact Lens Materials in the Fibroblast L-929 Cell Line

In this study, we polymerized new materials for soft contact lens using HEMA (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) which is the based-monomer of soft contact lens, EGDMA (ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) as cross linkage agent, and the new additives of monoester or di-ester derived from itaconic acid commercially produced by the fermentation of Asp. itaconicus. New polymer materials for soft contact lens were synthesized with the mixture of HEMA and mono- or diester at different ratios and presented to a good water content and oxygen transmissibility (Dk/L) values. In case of polymerization with HEMA and mono-ester (15%), the water content and oxygen transmissibility of contact lens were found to be good values at 57.6% and 28.5 Dk respectively. The mixture of HEMA and mono-ester is more excellent than HEMA/di-ester in the water content and oxygen transmissibility. The toxicity of new contact lens materials were confirmed in the fibroblast L-929 cell line using a agar overlay test and a growth inhibition test with the extract solution of contact lens.