Fabrication of Chitosan based-Scaffold as Potential Cornea Implant

Corneal damage is the second cause of blindness in the world due to limitation of high quality corneal from donor. This condition promote rapid development of biodegradable and biocompatible scaffold for corneal tissue because it can reduce the patient's dependence on the cornea donor. The purpose of this research is to synthesize chitosan-based hydrogel scaffold with glutaraldehyde (GA) as crosslink agent and observe the influence of concentration chitosan and GA to transparency and mechanical properties of the scaffold. Scaffolds were prepared by solution casting combined with salt leaching method. Among all of chitosan-based scaffolds that have been prepared, sample with 6.7% of chitosan and 0.0% of GA possess the highest transparency (85%), while sample with 6.7% of chitosan and 0.3% of GA gave the highest Young's modulus (3.09 MPa). However, sample with 6.7% of chitosan and 0.1% of GA might possess the highest potency as corneal tissue implant because of its transparency fulfill the minimum value of corneal tissue (80%) and its Young's modulus (1.41 MPa) is higher than any chitosan-based scaffold with minimum transparency 80%.