Recent Strategies of Therapeutic Cell Delivery for Regeneration of Corneal Endothelium

Cell-based therapies have been increasingly explored as a potential alternative treatment method of corneal endothelial dysfunction. Up to date, researchers have mainly dedicated enormous efforts to establishing fundamental techniques for culture and characterization of human corneal endothelial cells (HCECs) and human corneal endothelial progenitor cells (HCEPCs). However, in terms of cell delivery methods, existing approaches have shown many limitations such as low cell delivery efficiency, intricate processes, and inevitable damages on the cornea occurring during surgical procedure. The problems related to cell delivery to the eye have significantly hindered translation of the novel cell-based therapeutic systems into clinical practice. Thus, importance of developing novel strategies for cell delivery to the corneal endothelium has been increasingly growing. In this context, this review will discuss key approaches investigated until recently for efficient cell delivery to the corneal endothelium along with future perspectives on a need of developing cell delivery systems for treatment of corneal endothelial dysfunction.