{"doi":"10.1038/s41536-024-00385-9","title":"Bio-orthogonal crosslinking and hyaluronan facilitate transparent healing after treatment of deep corneal injuries with in situ-forming hydrogels","abstract":"Corneal transplantation is the primary treatment for corneal blindness, affecting millions globally. However, challenges like donor scarcity and surgical complications remain. Recently, in situ-forming corneal stroma substitutes have emerged, offering potential solutions to these limitations. These substitutes enable liquid-to-hydrogel formation in situ, eliminating sutures and reducing complications. Here we performed a direct, side-by-side comparison of a composite hyaluronan-collagen (HA-Col) hydrogel crosslinked by either photochemistry or bio-orthogonal chemistry to ascertain the impact of reaction specificity on corneal wound healing. Testing in rodent and rabbit models suggests that composite HA-Col gels crosslinked by bio-orthogonal chemistry results in more rapid and optically favorable wound healing compared to the same composition crosslinked by photochemistry as well as bio-orthogonally crosslinked collagen alone. These findings underscore biochemical parameters that may be important to the success of crosslinked, in situ-forming hydrogels as an alternative to corneal transplantation, with the potential for expanded access to treatment and improved outcomes.","journal":"npj Regenerative Medicine","year":2025,"id":512359,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":12,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9481,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1224862,"name":"Uiyoung Han","orcid":"0000-0002-7077-9676","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1371845,"name":"Thitima Wungcharoen","orcid":"0000-0002-3461-8015","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":697843,"name":"Youngyoon Amy Seo","orcid":"0000-0001-6651-001X","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":262480,"name":"Peter Le","orcid":"0000-0002-1932-9995","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1065782,"name":"Jiang Li","orcid":"0000-0001-8046-8874","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1225443,"name":"Nae-Won Kang","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1225445,"name":"Euisun Song","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1224861,"name":"Kyeongwoo Jang","orcid":"0000-0002-3665-2698","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":651916,"name":"David C Mundy","orcid":"0000-0001-5594-7945","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":262481,"name":"Gabriella Maria Fernandes-Cunha","orcid":"0000-0002-9934-5310","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":262482,"name":"Sarah C. Heilshorn","orcid":"0000-0002-9801-6304","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":262483,"name":"David Myung","orcid":"0000-0002-7980-3070","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":262479,"name":"Fang Chen","orcid":"0000-0002-6675-5508","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":35,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:48:06.263458Z","pmid":"39905045","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}